Spartan Anna-151
by The Evil Maker
Summary: (Temporarily Discontinued) Follow Anna in this collection of short stories about her new journey as a member of the Spartan-II Project, from the day when she was kidnapped by the UNSC, passing through the fall of Reach till the end of the fight and see how she interacts with many characters and events of the Halo Universe.
1. Kidnapping

I've been planning this for a long time, but before anything else I must warn that I'm FULLY FREAKIN' AWARE of the historical and chronologic mistakes and incongruences this fic in particular has, you could even say that it was "just 4 the lulz" but suddenly it became a big project, so let me know what do you think in the reviews.

The character names and locations mentioned here belong to their respective owners.

"Halo" Is a trademark property of Microsoft Game Studios and 343 Industries, 2014 all rights reserved.

"Halo" franchise created by Bungie.

"Frozen" Is a trademark property of The Walt Disney Company, 2014 all rights reserved.

Based on Hans Cristian Andersen's "The Snow Queen".

* * *

**Spartan Anna - 151**

**Episode I: Kidnapping**

* * *

**Nightmares:**

Darkness had a strong presence in the princesses' bedroom: The moonlight barely made the upholstered walls glow in blue, coming from a huge triangular window and also covering the canopy beds of the royal sisters

"E-Elsa?"

Anna muttered, standing in front of her sister's bed, placing her small hand on her tiny shoulder and shaking it gently to wake her up. Apparently she had troubles to get some sleep.

Elsa was abruptly dragged from the dream's realm to the unpleasant reality; hardly she opened one eye, blinking several times to focus her view, only to find the young strawberry blonde among the shades with an afraid expression on her face; The moonlight drew perfectly the little girl's silhouette.

"No Anna! I don't want to build a snowman! Go back to sleep…" Elsa replied in an exasperating tone, closing her eyes once again.

"Is not that! It's-" Anna tried to speak but the words escaped from her mind.

"Then what Anna!?"

"The shadow people, I think they're around here again, I heard them on the hall… I'm scared…"

The older sister sighed.

"…That's stupid Anna, there is no such thing like the "shadow people"

"B-but I have seen them! They're black and tall and with one big blue eye! Please Elsa…"

Anna begged, holding her hands together and pouting; her sapphire eyes grew watery as she refused to believe that Elsa was shutting her out, she always thought that her sister would be the last person in the world who would abandon her.

"No Anna! Please: I'm really tired, just to back to sleep…"

Elsa stopped talking and covered her head with the bed's sheets; the strawberry blonde on the other hand gasped quietly and lowered her head to left her sister's side… despite the fear overtaking her mind…

Anna arrived to her own bed at the other side of the room and cuddled on the sheets, she placed her hands under her cheek as if they were a pillow, then she sobbed in silence for a long time until she fell asleep.

* * *

**Abduction:**

Kai: The short fat man, servant of the royal family of Arendalle, had the unhealthy habit of walking through the castle's corridors after the midnight…This night was not different to many others: His footsteps were sounding on the floor's rug, the empty armors resting on the walls and the blue glare of the moon were their only companions.

"Hmph… It's getting late… I probably shoul-UGH!" Kai's thoughts went interrupted by a strong hit in the back on his head that made him loss consciousness; The impact of his body against the ground created a hollow sound which travelled all over the halls.

The mysterious entity responsible of knocking out the servant glared at him through the blue visor of his helmet, then he crouched to reach the fainted man on the floor and moved him from the passage way; each piece of his black armor tingled with every motion, including the one when he raised his hand and made a gesture to his partners for keep moving.

"Was that really necessary?" Another soldier in black armor emerged from the darkness, carrying something between his arms, whatever it was: It was covered by a white sheet.

"It was, in that way he won't remember anything of the occurred" A third man completed.

"Command, here the ODST Recovery Team, answer, over…" The trooper said with his fingers on one side of his helmet.

"Copy that trooper" A feminine voice came from the soldier's communicator "Here Dr. Halsey, What's the situation? Over."

"Halsey!?" The man asked "I thought I made contact with the command"

"There's been a little change on the mission's command, from now your team will be talking directly to me, still your orders are the same: Recover the package at any cost and lead to the extraction zone outside the building… So what's the situation? Over."

"Roger that, we're inside the building and all possible menaces are neutralized, we'll be passing to the next phase of the mission, over."

"Understood, contact me again when your team finds the package, trooper, Halsey out."

"What is it?" One of the troopers asked when the conversation finished.

"Nothing really, Just that Halsey will be telling us what to do from now." The soldier replied to his companion.

"Hahn! And she wasn't before!?"

"He's right man: We're helljumpers and they're using us to kidnap a ch-"

"Orders are orders, troopers! Now let's go, we're almost done here…" The third man attempted to complete but he was cut out by his leader.

With that the three soldiers remained silent and began to walk among the shadows over the corridors in quietness.

* * *

The troopers arrived to the end of the main passageway, finding a huge wooden door with gold details that seemed to reach the roof; two of them placed themselves on each of the doorframes while the third one grabbed the door handle.

"The thermal detectors don't show anything… you're ready?"

His companions nodded silently, so the team leader quickly opened the gate.

The ODST slowly entered into the giant hall in front of him, pointing his battle rifle to every corner of it to make sure it was safe.

The room was so big that the also large skylight in the ceiling was not enough to reveal it completely: He was able to see wide rhomboid symbol with a floral motif in the center of the floor and an ample fireplace hearth surrounded by white walls shining in blue.

The two remaining troopers wandered into the vestibule, also staring speechless at its gigantic size.

"Man! What a nice place these people have… Are they rich or something?" One of them said.

"They should, it seems like they're from the crown, royalty…" The other soldier answered while he was gazing at one painting above the fireplace… It was a family portrait of the castle owners.

From left to right: There was a young, brunette, pale woman wearing a light blue Victorian dress, sitting on a golden padded chair with a little strawberry blonde girl in her lap; Standing in the front another child with platinum hair, blue eyes and skin as white as snow, behind her there was the king, wearing the fanciest black jacket with golden shoulder plates, decorated with many medals and a red strip wrapping his waist.

"Mother, Father and two small kids…girls…" He said "And there's the one we're looking for…"

"And quite a taste they have for clothing…" The other trooper approached, grabbing between his fingers the white sheet his companion was holding and pulling it up to peek at what was under it…

"Cut off the shit and move, soldiers! We still have a mission to complete" The leader complained.

So the two ODST's followed their partner to another huge gate on the back wall of the lounge, using the same procedure they used in the previous one: Taking cover on the walls, searching for life signals with the thermal detector and passing through the door in the most noiseless way possible.

Before them there were stairs which led to the second floor, the soldiers started to go upstairs and they found one door at the end of these.

"Switching to thermal detector…" The team leader whispered "There's one single soul on the other side…" He completed when through his visor saw a small red, yellow and green smudge appear among the cold shades of the ambient.

"Probably the girl we're looking for…" Other ODST recalled.

"Let's go…"

Carefully the three of them kept walking to the door, opening it slowly until the package was finally revealed.

Two canopy beds in opposite sides of the room were visible, also a pink rug between them with a wide triangular window on the back wall that let the moonlight intrude on it… and the two princesses sleeping deeply.

The three ODST's approached to the beds in quietness, glaring at the sisters resting in them.

"I thought you said there was only one in here…" One of the troopers said.

"The thermal detector only revealed one… but why only one? Why this one was not detected?" The team leader replied, staring confused at the little platinum blonde: Elsa.

"Is she dead?"

"Don't be an idiot! She's snoring…"

"Nevermind… Is this the one we're looking for?"

"No, It's the younger one… the flash clone is ready?"

The soldier beside Anna's bed nodded in silence, then he took off the sheet that was hiding what he was carrying between his arms:

He was carrying another Anna… A little girl that looked exactly as Anna, unconscious and oblivious to the situation.

The leader came closer to his companion, He glanced down at the young strawberry blonde sleeping, giving her a hurt look thought his helmet for several seconds, as if he were asking for absolution for involving an innocent kid in deadly conflicts that did not even concerned her.

"Sir?"

"Let's just get this shit over with…" He replied, placing his hands under Anna's tiny head and knees to lift her from the bed, carefully enough to not wake her up.

When he finally got the child on his arms: The other trooper laid down the looked-like Anna girl in the princess' bed to take her place, also covering her with the bed sheets.

"Dr. Halsey, come in…" The leader began to talk.

"Here Halsey, What is it Trooper?" The feminine voice replied.

"We have the girl and the clone is set, we're ready for extraction…"

"Make sure to sedate her before leaving the building, we don't want her to be awake until she arrives to Reach…"

"Too bad is not this one… She looks more capable…" The soldier standing in front of Elsa's bed thought in high voice.

"I certainly care a little about the opinion of a knucklehead soldier, you are supposed to follow orders, not question them! Understood trooper!?"

"Bitch…" The ODST Mumbled.

"Good, Soldier: Sedate the girl and lead your team to the extraction point at the rock valley in the north, Is just a few miles away from your position, the pelican will be waiting there, Halsey out."

"…I knew this was going to be a long hell of a night…" The leader sighed exasperatedly, his deep breath tarnished slightly the glass of his visor. "Pass me the syringe…"

His partner obeyed the command and moved his hand to one bag on his thigh, opening it to pull out a syringe full of a yellow liquid and give it to the other trooper.

Setting free one hand and making sure he was still carrying Anna correctly: The ODST grabbed between his fingers the medical instrument.

"…Forgive me…" The soldier whispered to the girl as he gently pressed the needle against her neck until it overpassed her thin skin.

"Ugh…" Anna complained softly when the liquid inside the syringe intruded in her body and mixed with the blood on her veins, then she returned to her deep rest like if nothing happened.

The leader slowly pulled out the needle and saved the empty instrument on one small container on his utility belt, after that he moved his hand upwards to the kid's neck, cleaning with his thumb a little blood drop coming out from the tiny wound, then traveling to her forehead, removing a few hairs from it as the guilt began to spread all over his mind like a mortal disease…

"Sir: The kid is sedated and the flash clone is set, are we ready to move?" His partner asked, making him return to the current situation.

"… I guess… Be ready to move soldiers, we're leaving"

Following the order the three troopers walked back in silence to the door of the room, taking the little strawberry blonde with them and leaving the place as they found it first.

"I still believe the other one would be more useful…" One of them said as he gave a final peek to Elsa and the flash clone of Anna before closing the door behind him, letting the girls rest with no idea of what just happened.

With Anna on their hands: The ODST's disposed to return from where they came, keeping the standard stealth that made them qualified for this mission in first place.

* * *

**The Journey Begins…**

"C'mon Sven! We're late!" Kristoff: The small apprentice to Iceman said to his companion, a little reindeer that seemed to be as young as the boy mounted on the sledge he was pulling through the dark forest in the middle of the night.

Sven was holding in his mouth an old oil lantern to illuminate their errant path among the trees… but undoubtedly they were lost.

"I think we're going in the wrong direction…" the boy said, wandering with his sight over every corner of the forest that the moonlight made shine, being unable to recognize any familiar sign to track their locations.

Suddenly the trail of the sledge ceased and the lantern fell to the grass, Kristoff stood up and walked to Sven, seeking to find what made him stop.

"What is it pal? Why do you stop?" The little iceman questioned his companion.

"Helloooo? Earth to Sven?" Kristoff moved his hand in front of the lost glare of the reindeer, but whatever the animal was staring at: It was impressive enough to avoid any external distraction.

Confused the boy looked in the same direction as Sven… and by surprise both were captured in the same motionless stance.

Kristoff and his reindeer contemplated in silence a mysterious group of lights dancing around the natural shrubbery, approaching to them at a preoccupying speed.

"Shhh, be quiet…" The little iceman hissed as he blew out his lantern, hiding him and Sven in the shadows, they crouched and hoped that the strangers behind the flares would not discover them.

Both waited for the lights to get close enough to see what was about… What they saw left them puzzled, impressed and frightened.

They were staring at three soldiers wearing a black armor far beyond any comparable thing they have ever seen before, with an also black helmet and a blue crystal covering their faces; _"Ice?" _Kristoff thought.

Two of them were holding rifles from where the flares emanated, and the third one was carrying a kid, a little girl on his arms.

"Why It must be so fuckin' cold here!?" One of the mysterious men said.

"Maybe because we're wandering on a dark forest among the mountains at early hours of the fuckin' morning!?" Other completed.

"Ugh! How much it remains to arrive at the rock valley? This place is making me sick…"

"Just a few meters from here" The man carrying the girl answered "Move faster soldiers: I already hear the pelican"

Their appearance was alien to his understanding: Kristoff covered his mouth with his glove to shut the upcoming gasp that the image of another kid provoked in him; He and his reindeer waited in the shades for the unknown entities to walk away from them, but not enough to let them escape from their sights.

"Let's go Sven, we must see what's going on…"

So the little iceman and his companion began to run after the soldiers, making sure to not be detected, they didn't realized where they were going until a huge amount of rocks blocked their way, fortunately they were tall enough to peek above them.

* * *

Another incredible scene far beyond their comprehension was occurring in the rock valley among the mountains.

Floating only few meters away from the ground there was a gigantic metal structure in front of the soldiers, shapeless to their perceptions: It had huge pieces of steel protruding from the sides, which were throwing fire at the air, raising and spreading dust-clouds from the land to every corner of the valley.

It was creating a deafening noise but the mysterious mans were expressionless at it, so Kristoff thought they were familiarized with it.

"What… Is… That!?" The little iceman turned to ask at his reindeer, who had the same perplexed expression he had, like if he were looking himself in a mirror.

With no answer to his doubts Kristoff resigned to keep watching at the amazing scene, but still he didn't trusted in his eyes.

Suddenly from the bottom of the big floating building a gate opened, descending to the grass and from the aperture came out two more strange soldiers and a young woman with gray short hair, wearing a full-body platinum costume.

"What took you so long!?" The woman standing before the troopers nearly shouted because of the loud sound of the structure, placing her hand in front of her eyes to prevent the raising dust enter into them.

"Dr. Halsey! Here is your…Package! As you requested!" The soldier carrying the infant answered, passing her to the young woman.

"Impressive! I'm glad to see that the rumors about the ODST's efficiency were not so exaggerated! Still under my expectations!" Halsey stretched her arms to carry the girl, meticulously inspecting Anna's face with her fingers.

"We do our best ma'am!"

"You could have done a better job cleaning the blood from her neck!"

This time the trooper didn't replied, just nodded in silence.

Unexpectedly one of the soldiers entered in alert state and pointed his gun to one amount of rocks in the distance, gazing suspiciously at them through the smokes coming out from the cracks of the soil.

"What is it?" One of the ODST's asked, then everyone standing in the valley (even Kristoff and Sven) imitated his gesture and prepared for anything.

"Those rocks… I swear I saw them move, we're not alone here…"

The chills surrounded Kristoff's body when that sentence was spoken; he concealed himself and Sven behind the giant rock in front of them as his little heart raced in response to the growing fear within him.

"Rocks? It's been a long night and we're all tired soldier… let's go back to the pelican! Here is where your job ends and mine begins!" Halsey replied to the ODST, making him relax his stance.

With that the young iceman and his reindeer witnessed everybody in the center of the valley enter into the floating metal structure, the gate that opened before closed behind them and suddenly it began to get louder and disperse mightily the dust all over the valley to the point that Kristoff had to hide in the rock to protect himself.

The gigantic building started to rise even more from the earth until it reached the high of the clouds, then by art of magic it flew quickly far away from Arendalle, along with the little girl they brought with them, only leaving behind the rock valley like it ever was and two young beholders.

Kristoff and Sven never parted their sights from the sky till the mysterious floating thing disappeared in the dark of the night.

"Sven! We must tell this to someone! People must know!" The iceman said to his companion, which only answer was a disbelieving look that the boy interpreted correctly.

"I think you're right" He completed "Nobody is going to believe us anyway, they already think we're strange, so we will never talk about this with anyone, this is just between you and me, ok?"

The small reindeer nodded in response.

"Great! Now let's go back to the camp, the sun is about to rise…"

So the little iceman and his partner began to walk away from the valley to venture into the dark forest once again, full of doubts and alien to the nature of the events they witnessed tonight.

The lives of many persons changed abruptly in just a matter of hours for a greater good, still this episode on the Arendalle's kingdom… It's only the tip of the spear…

* * *

**-O.D.S.T.: **Orbital Drop Shock Trooper (also known as "Helljumpers").

**-Reach: **Human colony world at 10.5 light years away from the solar system.

**-Pelican: **Name applied to a series of dropships operated by the UNSC Marine Corps, the UNSC Navy, and the New Mombasa Police Department.


	2. The Birth Of A Spartan

I can't tell you how proud I am of this chapter: A lot of investigation was required to get it fixed correctly, for this one I read some of "Halo: The Fall of Reach" Novel, along with many hours of writing, being the longest story I've ever written but still is the one I've enjoyed most working on, probably my favorite by now, please leave a review with your honest opinion and please ignore the fact that involves more the Halo Universe more than the Frozen Franchise.

* * *

**Spartan Anna – 151**

**Episode II: The Birth Of A Spartan**

* * *

**Awakening…**

**September 23, 2517, 2300 hours**

**Planet Reach**

Anna slowly began to gain some consciousness, her deep rest went interrupted by the strange loud sounds echoing inside the place she was sleeping in. She barely opened one eye: Her vision was blurry and her ears only received unrecognizable voices… in that moment she realized that she wasn't in her room.

_Where am I? _Noticing the previous fact the strawberry blonde quickly focused her senses and sat on the bed.

"AGH! T-this isn't my bed!" She said scared as her breathing became erratic and her forehead began to cold-sweat.

The little strawberry blonde wandered with her sight around the place where she was, the first thing she perceived was herself resting in a bunk bed, beyond it there were more bunk beds orderly positioned in rows all over the place.

The gigantic hall was full of kids, boys and girls like her, some of them crying in their cots, others were yelling desperately and seeking for an escape route through the gray steel walls surrounding them, but not leaving any place for doubts: everyone was frightened and confused, just as she was.

Anna opened her mouth several times to speak but fear paralyzed her tongue: She didn't knew where she was, or why she was there, and Elsa, nor her parents were there to explain… she was alone…

"MAMA! PAPA!" She shouted as she hold her legs against her chest, resting her head on her knees and bursting into tears inconsolably.

"You have freckles too?"

A stranger's calm voice interrupted Anna's crying, she cleaned her eyes with the back of her hand between quiet sobs to see who was calling her.

The strawberry blonde saw another boy sitting in the bed beside hers, he had short brown hair, a light smile that showed a small gap between his upper teeth and… just as her: freckles spreading all over his nose bridge and cheeks.

"What is your name?" The boy asked, almost whispering.

Anna stared at him impressed and slightly intimidated, even when he was sitting on the sheets, she could notice that he was very tall, nearly twice her height.

"A-Anna…" She replied weakly.

"Anna? That's a pretty name…"

The strawberry blonde giggled a little, then both remained noiseless and avoided to look at each other, letting an awkward silence fill the atmosphere, despite the other kids crying in the background.

"Do you know where we are?" Anna asked.

"You don't know? Me neither, the last thing I remember it was me sleeping on my bed but then someone entered in my room and injected me with something, then I was sleeping again and when I woke up I saw you and the other kids in this strange place…"

The familiarity of the events made Anna froze as a statue, she doesn't need to be a detective… or even older than six years old to realize there was a connection, but as far as they now: Both shared questions, not answers…

"I just wanna go home… I miss my parents, I'm scared…" The strawberry blonde muttered.

"Yeah… me too…" The boy replied melancholically more than frightened.

"What is your name?" Anna asked in a friendly gesture.

"John!"

"Soooo John? Wanna be my friend?" Anna began to cheer herself up, returning to be the playful little girl she always has been.

(BANG!)

Before John could even answer a deafening thunder travelled all over the hall where the kids were, loudly enough to disorientate them slightly and capture their attentions to focus on what caused the noise.

Anna covered her ears with her palms and closed tightly her eyes when the loud sound threatened with leaving her deaf, after a moment she realized there was no danger and glanced to the origin of the sound.

Everyone in the room remained in complete quietness when a big group of soldiers, ODST's entered into the hall with battle and assault rifles, one of them in the front was raising his arm on the air, holding a pistol that emanated smoke from the barrel.

"Get up and come with us!" The trooper began to speak "There's some one important who wants to meet you! Do anything stupid and we will have to use these ones… on you… NOW MOVE!"

Obeying the command all the infants in the room gathered in one huge crowd, 76 kids stood up and followed the soldiers out of the hall to whatever place they were leading them, Anna was trapped in the middle of the mob, she attempted to stay close to John but she lost him among the multitude.

She was the smallest of all, and probably the younger too, so she had solid reasons to be afraid. Who are these people? What could they possibly want of her? Will she return to her parents?

Anna thought that all the answers she was looking for might be at the end of the passageway where she and the other kids were being leaded.

* * *

**Training:**

**September 24, 2517, 2200 Hours**

**Reach's Military Complex**

"MOVE FASTER! MOVE! THE LAST ONE WILL SLEEP OUTDOORS TONIGHT!"

The ODST warned: He was supervising the kids on the current activity, part of the UNSC training program specially planned for the recruits of the Spartan-II project.

"FASTER RECRUITS! DO IT AS IF YOUR LIFES DEPEND ON THIS!"

He yelled at the children, watching them crawl thoroughly on the clay as he fired his rifle at the air to motivate them.

The soldier gloated with the scene of the young boys and girls panting for breath with their heads under barbed wires, creeping over the mud to reach the finishing line at the end of the trail, yearning for the release of this tortuous day.

Anna was suffering too: Her belly was facing the clay, her arms, chin and hair were fully covered in mud, some of it entering into her mouth every time she opened it to catch air; She fought to slide her limbs forwards to keep moving, but there was no energy left within her tiny body.

Since the moment she was been awakened against her will: The strawberry blonde and the rest of the kids were submitted to inhuman training schedules, Jumping jacks, squats, ab exercises and long running cycles around the whole complex was the way they spent the day; minutes of resting followed by hours of exercise with no intermediates for food.

The sun hid behind the mountains and the moon appeared in its place, even like that the training continued, Anna was hungry and tired, every fiber of her being yelled in pain, her limbs and stomach were burning, her muscles ached merciless, she wished with all her soul that all this were only a bad dream.

She wanted to wake up, she wanted to stop… but she knew that all this was real, she also knew that it wasn't a good idea to piss off this people.

Despite her determination: She stopped, her arms and legs weren't responding, she finally gave everything and reached her edge; The strawberry blonde rested her forehead on her forearm, breathing heavily she stared at the other kids, admiring how they possessed the strength to keep moving, she remained motionless as the tears began to run down and clean the clay from her freckled cheeks.

"I CAN'T! I'M TIRED! PLEASE! STOP!"

Anna heard on the distance, she raised her vision to look at one boy, begging to the soldier for letting him rest.

The ODST stared at him, moving his head to the sides, then fiercely he stepped on the kid's head to send his face to the mud.

"GET YOUR ASS TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE GOAL-LINE, RECRUIT! OR I WON'T MAKE MYSELF RESPONSIBLE OF MY ACTS!" The man shouted, keeping his feet above the boy's head while he struggled to stand up.

Then the trooper released him, the kid raised and gave a loud deep breath, after that he began to crawl again between painful sobs.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU LOOKING AT!? KEEP FUCKING MOVING!" The ODST yelled at the children, firing his gun anew.

Anna gasped when the shot echoed all over the complex, the horror replaced the fatigue, she slowly kept crawling on direction at the goal line, dreaming with the moment when she could finally lay down and rest without having to worry about anything.

By surprise one kid reached the end line, Anna looked at him: It was John, sitting on the sand with his body fully covered in clay, after him other kid arrived, and then other, and other, the pattern kept repeating until almost every child completed the task successfully, only remaining a bunch of them, and of course, among those there was Anna.

The strawberry blonde witnessed powerless how she was being overpassed by the other recruits, she gathered all her remaining forces to move the fastest her body allowed to her, but it was useless: She was falling behind.

She crawled desperately to end this nightmare, her tiny heart raced uncontrollably and her lungs felt full of fire.

Anna stretched her little arm, her hand barely surpassed the goal line, she lied on the land, unable to move any muscle, only breathing at an accelerated rhythm, almost hyperventilating, but she didn't care: She closed her eyes, attempting fall asleep there… on the soil.

"Rest for now" The trooper approached to the children "You have earned it, TRAINERS! GET THE WATER!"

Many trainers of the complex in green costumes emerged from the barracks with trolleys full of water bottles, leading to the kids, Anna stood up to grab one, she drank the whole bottle: It was the most delicious water she ever tasted in all her entire life.

"EVERYONE! GET TO THE SHOWERS AND GO TO SLEEP! TOMORROW'S GONNA BE A LONG ASS DAY!" The trooper yelled at the four winds.

Then all the boys and girls gathered in one huge crowd, walking to the barracks like zombies, Anna was about to join them but someone grabbed her by the shoulder, she turned to see who it was, her blue eyes widened as plates when she did.

"Except you cadet…" The ODST said coldly to the little strawberry blonde in front of him.

"W-WHAT!?" Anna asked fearfully "B-B-BUT WHY?!"

"What are you? Deaf of stupid? You finished last, It's your reward for being weak"

"B-b-but I don't want to sleep here! It's cold and dark and, and…"

What? Are you going to cry, recruit? One of the trainers will bring all your stuff out here… and no shower for you by the way"

Anna froze, she began to cry, then she felt a cold drop hit the top of her head, then another, and other while a thunder sounded above the clouds.

"Hahn! It's your lucky day, it seems like it's gonna rain soon, so you actually will take a shower after all…" The trooper said, moving his palm to feel the water falling from the sky, then he walked away from the strawberry blonde to his own barrack.

Anna let herself fall to the ground, she sat on the sand and rested her head on her knees to sob in peace under the rain, every wish to be alive escaped from her soul in that single moment, the physical pain of her body was nothing in comparison to the stinging sadness that consumed her heart.

"Mommy… daddy… where are you? Help me… Please…" She raised her chin to look into the stars, praying for this living hell to end.

* * *

**Stolen Memories…**

**September 30, 2517, 2130 Hours**

**Interrogation Room**

"It's useless ma'am, she just keeps refusing, I don't understand… the other kids didn't opposed with such resistance…"

The ODST Said to Halsey, who was truly disappointed: Soldiers like him in particular were trained to be sent into suicidal missions, facing the deadliest foes and living death-close experiences almost every day… and he wasn't capable of convince a kid to forget her parents.

"You're unbelievable soldier… go and have a break, just give me ten minutes with that little girl and everything will run smoothly"

"Are you sure ma'am?"

"Unlike you I can handle a kid, trooper…" Halsey replied, giving her back at the ODST and opening the gate in front of her.

The gate revealed a dark room, only illuminated by a lonely light hanging above a gray steel table in the center, two chairs were visible: Anna sitting in one of them, staring deeply at the ground… and the other one was empty at the other side.

Halsey sighed and approached to the vacant chair, the incandescent light in the roof reflected on her white lab coat, she sat and looked at the small strawberry blonde in front of her, who returned the gaze in a more innocent and defenseless way.

"I thought we already clarified this the other night, Anna…" Halsey began, she did her best to conceal the guilt of kidnapping a kid corrupting her voice.

"I miss my family…" Anna discussed "I wanna go home…"

"You have to understand: That's not possible anymore…"

"I don't want to be here!"

Anna's sapphire eyes grew watery, the image of the sadden child hit hard on Halsey's Achilles heel: She knew this atrocity had to be done for the common wealth; tens of lives should suffer so other thousands wouldn't have to. She said that to herself every night in front of the mirror… when she was barely capable of see her disgusting reflection in one.

"Anna… listen to me… What we are doing is for a greater good, is to protect every men, woman and kid… and that includes your family, I know this must be hard bu-"

"But I miss my sister, I miss my home… please…"

Halsey hesitated: She began to doubt about the idea of bringing her to the army… still the strawberry blonde was there now and the project couldn't stop by cause of one single recruit; she parted her sight from the little girl, questioning herself for the moral of what she was about to say in the next 60 seconds.

"Anna…" Halsey took a deep breath and gathered some bravery "I'm sorry for being the one who has to tell you this, and I'm also sorry that you have to find out like this but…"

The little strawberry blonde looked without blinking to the older woman in silence, waiting for her to speak, unconsciously letting go a lonely tear that ran down over her freckled cheek.

"Your parents asked us… to take you…" Halsey was lying "They already had your older sister, more intelligent and truly more polite than you… for them… you were just another mouth to feed… without purpose… so we made a deal…"

Anna was speechless: All her conception of the world broke in one thousand pieces in just a matter of seconds, she saw her entire life like a movie inside her head, her pink cheeks changed to a deep red when a unhealthy mix of fury and sadness crushed her heart.

"T-THAT'S NOT TRUE! YOU ARE LYING!" She yelled, tightening her whole body and spreading tears all over the table. "MY PARENTS LOVE ME! TELL ME YOU ARE LYING!"

Halsey said nothing in response, if the little girl would have tried to harm her in that moment… she would have allowed her to do so…

"I'm sorry darling…" The doctor's eyes grew watery.

Anna had difficulties to process what just happened in her mind… first she remained motionless with a lost glare at one corner of the dark room, then she interpreted the older woman's silence… and suddenly she burst into tears, but not like a spoiled brat… more like someone who had everything and then lost it at the same time, her painful sobs emerged from the deepest of her soul…

"I will ask to one soldier to escort you to your cot, you need to rest… I understand that… you have a busy schedule planned for tomorrow…"

Halsey stood from the chair and walked to the door, leaving back the strawberry blonde crying inconsolably.

"And that's how you deal with a kid…" The doctor said to the ODST when she opened the gate, avoiding to look him and disposing to abandon the place.

"It's easy for you to say: You are not the one who kidnapped her in the first place…" The trooper replied defiant.

Halsey froze in her step, she clenched her fist, yearning to slap him with all her strength, but she knew it wasn't a good idea since he was using his helmet, she restrained herself, just turning around, approaching to him fearless.

"Escort her with the others… and then I want you to stay away from her, if I find you didn't did so… I won't have mercy on you…"

"Is that a threat, doctor?"

"No, It's a promise…"

With that Halsey left the interrogation room, making sure to charge against the ODST with her shoulder before leaving, the trooper stared at her walking away, when he lost the sight of the doctor he entered into the room once again.

* * *

**The Birth Of A Spartan:**

**Mars 09, 2525, 2330 Hours**

**O.N.I. Medical Installation, In Orbit Around The Planet Reach**

Halsey walked through the corridors painted in white by the incandescent lights of the roof, hastening her steps while a storm of thoughts exploded in her head: She wanted to quit, she wanted to wait, but the high command of the O.N.I. was pressing her, it was the best choice… it was the only choice…

The doctor stopped in front of the gate of the operating room, she sighed deeply, glancing once more at the report she was carrying with her.

"The following procedures are classified as 'level 3 experimental' with high mortality factor and/or genetic mutation risk. By order of the Official Code of the Quarter Master General of the UNSC: OBF34, all the test subjects, along with remains of the procedure must be eliminated as a priority objective"

The information was clear, the acts were clear: It was suicide… homicide…

Against her will: Halsey opened the door, showing Anna sitting in one bed, wearing a hospital gown and a nurse standing beside her; at the bed's sides there were 6 gigantic mechanical arms (three on each side) emerging from the ground with needles at the end of these, unanimated and pointing to the lights in the roof.

Halsey approached to Anna, proudly admiring what she has become to: With just 14 years old, the strawberry blonde possessed the physical condition of an Olympic athlete, and the strategic mind of a genius.

All these years of inhuman training and psychological abuse finally paid off… and yet she remained as childish and sweet as the little girl the UNSC kidnapped a long time ago back at the Arendalle's kingdom.

"Hi Doc!" Anna said with a bright smile and kicking to the air "Long time no see, right?"

"Hello Anna…" Halsey replied, faking the best smile she could "How do you feel?"

"Scared, to be honest… Not that I'm a coward or anything like that, it's just that the nurse here told me I needed an intervention or something, I honestly didn't understood completely, and not because she explained it in the wrong way, it's just that-"

Anna's babbling comforted Halsey… and at the same time made her feel more guilt of her doing.

The doctor smirked and the strawberry blonde blushed, and both suddenly kept silent…

"Are you ready?" Halsey broke the silence.

"Yeah, I think… though I don't know for what I'm ready but… Don't worry! I'll be ready! Wait, what did I said?"

By surprise Anna shivered when the nurse beside her brushed a wet cotton ball in her shoulder, then she saw her pull out a syringe full of a blue liquid, trembling even more at the image.

"Ow god god god! I hate needles…" The strawberry blonde muttered when the nurse pressed the needle of the medical instrument against her freckled skin, injecting on her the strange substance.

"Ufff! That wasn't so bad at all…" Anna sighed relieved "so, we're done, right?"

"…T-that was just a sedative, Anna…" Halsey said, facepalming in her mind, Anna's blue eyes widened in surprise.

"Oh! Well… I-"

"I'll be up there supervising the procedure, I will return when the operation finishes…" The doctor replied, pointing with her finger at the observation booth in the second floor. "Good luck…"

Halsey turned and began to walk away from the strawberry blonde, she made an effort to look calm and serene, even when she was terrified about the fact that the little girl may have spoken her last words and she didn't even knew it.

Anew Halsey hastened her step, crossing her fingers for this to work as the nervous sweat began to grow on her forehead.

"Eeemm… Doc!" Anna called, the doctor stopped and looked to her "I-Is it going to hurt?" She asked with an unsure look on her sapphire eyes.

Halsey parted her sight from the girl, seeking desperately for a not so hopeless answer, she took a deep breath and glanced again to the strawberry blonde.

"Only if you are weak! And you wouldn't be here if you were…" she replied, faking optimism.

Anna smiled slightly in trust, then she watched the doctor walking into a gate under the observation booth.

"I almost forgot!" Halsey stopped before leaving "You need to take of the gown… for the procedure…"

With that Halsey left, Anna nodded in response and stood up from the bed.

* * *

Halsey breathed heavily, crossing her arms and staring deeply at Anna through the windows of the observation booth, before her there were many computer terminals, monitoring the vital signs of the little girl and showing tons of information about the procedure.

The room was full with white coats: The best surgeons and engineers the O.N.I. could afford, all of them waiting with the same fear and anxiety the moment when Halsey would give the order to start the project.

The doctor watched Anna back at the operation room, taking off her gown and exposing her athletic body full of freckles, she hesitated before lying herself on the bed, between the mechanical arms, the nurse left the place.

"Dr. Halsey?" One of the scientists called her, awakening her from a little trance.

"The test subject is set and the systems are ready, Do we proceed with the operation?"

Halsey remained in quietness, she glanced first at the surgeon and then to the monitors in front of her, she moved her hand to press a button in the controls.

"Anna, Listen to me carefully!" Halsey spoke through a speaker, her voice echoed in the whole room, the strawberry blonde wandered with her sight to find the origin of the voice, stopping at the operation booth.

"I want you to relax, close your eyes and think in what motivates you… in what makes you keep forward… it's very important for you to keep calm during the whole procedure, understand?"

"Ok… relax" Anna muttered and made herself comfortable on the bed "keep close and motivate my eyes…wait, what?"

"Are we ready to proceed, doctor?" The scientist asked again.

(…)

"Initiate the systems…"

And then everyone on the room quickly placed themselves on one single computer of the large terminals and began to press buttons like if it was the end of the world.

"Securing the subject" One surgeon said, pressing a button on his keyboard and suddenly many steel shackles emerged from the bed where Anna was, trapping her wrists, ankles and head.

"Shit, shit shit! Keep calm! Keep calm!" Anna said frightened when she found herself unable to move.

"Subject immobilized, preparing anesthesia" Once again from the bed raised a small respirator, moving upwards to cover Anna's mouth, her eyes opened wide as she hyperventilated inside it.

"Anesthesia ready!"

"Be strong Anna…" Halsey whispered, watching the strawberry blonde trembling defenseless on the bed.

"Dr. Halsey: The subject is prepared, waiting for your authorization"

The doctor placed her hands behind her back, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath while she considered the idea of finance Anna's funeral.

"Do it…" She authorized, avoiding the doubts, but not vanishing them.

"Initializing primary protocols" The scientist introduced in his computer, and then the mechanical motionless arms on Anna's sides began to react and point at her body, approaching slowly with metallic sounds to her arms, thighs and her head's temples.

"…Oh fuck…" Anna muttered when she saw the needles getting closer, only a few inches away from her skin.

"Beginning Ceramic Carbides Ossification"

The syringes around Anna abruptly moved forward and nailed on her inner muscles, she whined painfully under her respirator when the mechanical arms began to introduce many strange substances on her being… and then it started…

**1\. - Ceramic Carbides Ossification: **Advanced material injection on the skeleton structure to make the bones virtually unbreakable… successful… Anna felt like if broken glass pieces were travelling through her limbs, she struggled to release herself but the shackles restrained her well.

**2\. – Muscular Increase: **Proteinaceous compounds injection directly into the muscular fibers to improve the muscle tissue density… successful… Anna's muscles inflated, every fiber of her body was burning under her skin, her painful crying went silenced by the respirator.

**3\. - Catalytic Thyroid Stimulation: **Enhancer substance injection on the thyroid gland to accelerate the growth of bone and muscle tissue… successful… Anna's throat was closing slowly, threatening with suffocate her to the death.

**4\. - Occipital capillary Stimulation: **Blood flow betterment in the retina and iris to boost the visual perception… successful… Anna began to mourn blood, aching tortuously, she felt like if her eyes were about to burst out from her head.

**5\. – Neuronal Superconducting Reinforcement: **Bioelectrical nerve alteration to replace it with an electrically protected nerve, increasing motor skills reactions in 300%, along with intelligence, creativity and memory… successful… Anna felt an electric burst spreading all over her spine, making her head palpitate painfully and her body convulse uncontrollably.

And so it ended… the genetic modifications were completed: The syringes of the mechanical arms pulled out from the strawberry blonde, moving away and pointing to the roof anew to remain still… just like Anna…

She was there, lying on the bed with her eyes closed and being unable to move, waging an inner fight to breathe, the blood was pouring from the wounds and her lacrimals; Halsey got terrified at the scene.

"RELEASE HER! NOW!" She demanded to one scientist in the computers, he pressed a button and the shackles restraining Anna's limbs removed from them.

The worried doctor ran quickly to the elevator of the observation booth, being followed by other surgeons.

When the elevator reached the first floor: Halsey took the lead and arrived to Anna's bed.

"Anna?! Anna!? Can you hear me!?" She asked to the strawberry blonde, who was alien to the doctor's stimulations, she was slapping gently her cheeks to make her react… but still the little girl's consciousness seemed to be far away from the operation room.

"Her vision is good, she's still with us!" One of the surgeons gathered around Anna said, pointing a small lantern to her eye, and just like him, the others were checking her health state.

"…Uhh…nnghh…" Anna began to wake, whispering softly.

"Anna! Look at me! How do you feel!?" Halsey asked again, holding Anna's cheeks between her hands, it was terrifying to see her like that: full of life a few minutes ago… and now she was cheating death.

"…D…D…d-d-doc-c?"

"You'll be fine, Anna! Stay with us…" Everyone in the room sighed relieved, Halsey wanted to cry in joy.

"Can you move?"

"I-I-I'll try…" Anna started to rise her hand on the air, the doctors helped the strawberry blonde to stand up, she sat on the bed and made an effort to place her feets on the ground with clumsy and sporadic gestures.

She tried to stand alone but her stance was weak: Her knees trembled and made her fall, her muscles were still aching from the intervention.

"OW!" Anna complained loudly when her buttocks crashed against the cold ground, she was too heavy for the medics.

"Anna! Are you alright!? You're ok?" Halsey was so worried, all the doctors took her by her arms and raised her from the floor, after that she was finally standing on her own.

"W-why the floor… It's soo faar?" The strawberry blonde asked, losing the balance and noticing that she was taller than before, tall enough to see the scientist now from above.

"You'll be fine Anna…" Halsey replied with a relieving smile "You will receive new training, to help your brain to learn how to move your new body with stronger muscles and faster perceptions… but for now you will have to rest in bed, until you recover from the side effects of the modifications…"

"I-I don't feel very…well…" Anna said with a hand on her forehead.

"Have a seat, Anna, we'll get you a stretcher" The medics rested the strawberry blonde on the bed, helping her to put on her hospital gown back, she wasn't even able to focus her sight on one single time for a long time.

Everyone stepped back, giving Anna some space, including Halsey: She was looking at her with an infinite happiness that she disguised skillfully as a proud smirk; Anna survived, the battle was half-won now, from this moment it was only a matter of time, it was the birth of a Spartan.

The doctor stared at the strawberry blonde, watching in calm her chest go up and down by cause of her breathing, she noticed that her gown had her name on it.

It said:

"Anna – 151" A new kind of warrior has been born.

* * *

**-U.N.S.C.: **United Nations Space Command.

**-Spartan-II Project: **Code name of the project created by the UNSC (Directed by Dr. Catherine Halsey) in order to produce super soldiers through processes of biological and genetic modifications.

**-Jumping Jacks: **Physical jumping exercise performed by jumping to a position with the legs spread wide and the hands touching overhead, sometimes in a clap, and then returning to a position with the feet together and the arms at the sides.

-**Squats: **Full body exercise that trains primarily the muscles of the thighs.

**-O.N.I.: **Office of Naval Intelligence.

**-Thyroid: **The thyroid gland is found in the neck, below the "Adam's Apple", it controls how quickly the body uses energy, makes proteins, and controls how sensitive the body is to other hormones.


	3. The Fall Of Reach (Part I)

Finally: The moment we all have been waiting is here: Almost seven fuckin thousand goddamned words were require to gather Anna with the Noble Team, but it totally worth it.

For those with doubts this is the procedure I'll be using for this fic: I'm gonna relate the most notable scenes from the missions of the Halo games with the "what if" participations of our favorite Disney princess by now and little additions of mine too.

I take advantage of this moment to warn that I won't be able of update in a long time since my vacations are over, so this may by my last entry for a while, also: for those who may be thinking about it:

NO, Halo 4 is not going to enter in this collection (at least not by now), and not because is bad or something similar: It's because Bungie's Halo is special, unique and irreplaceable, the one we love now, we loved since years ago and the one we will tell our kids and grandsons about, besides: I rather wait to Halo 5: Guardians to see if it worth the challenge, but for now Farewell, enjoy the show and May the Divines Smile at You :D, Seeya' at the virtual battlefield.

* * *

**Spartan Anna – 151**

**Episode III: The Fall Of Reach (Part I)**

* * *

**Welcome to Noble**

**July 24, 2552, 07:28 Hours**

**Planet Reach**

For the UNSC Marines and all the mankind equally: The Spartans were a symbol of hope, an example to follow: The true personification of strength, intelligence and bravery… Anna was just… different…

Sure, like all the other members of the Spartan-II Project: She received physical and psychological training, instruction to military tactics and weapons use at an early age, even she had fought in real combat situations through the course of her life… and still she somehow managed to remain innocent, sweet and clumsy… and that was a problem during the missions…

And noble six was about to find out…

"That's a pretty cool helmet"

Anna said, she was driving the warthog: A land military trooper transport vehicle for four passengers through a mountain valley to a checkpoint in the horizon, along with noble six: both were requested to replace a deceased member of the noble team… something different, strange, dangerous was happening on Reach.

The gray Spartan was silent, sitting beside the female Spartan with red armor, glaring deeply at the golden visor of his helmet that he was holding between his hands, completely oblivious to Anna's efforts of conversation.

"I used to have one of those before" she continued "but it got broken when a grenade exploded in my face! I guess I did wrong the timing to throw it, but here I am! People always say I'm a hard-headed…"

Noble six didn't even bothered to look at her.

"You don't talk too much, do you? You know: You kinda remind me to my sister, though I can barely remember her! Always so quiet and serious and too grown-up to have fun; life would be so much easier if we allow us to smile more often, but NOOO! People around here always are mad and serious, like if all of them had a stick right into their bu-"

(CRASH! THUM!)

Anna and noble six trembled abruptly on their seats, almost falling from the vehicle when she forgot to look at the road and made the warthog run over a gigantic rock, whoever who told her to drive, clearly did not knew Anna…

"Eyes, on the road…" Noble six spoke for the first time, and clearly he wasn't happy…

"Right, right, right… sorry…" Anna muttered, trying to hide her head between her shoulders by cause of the embarrassment.

"How do you think our partners will be?" she asked after a long, awkward silence.

The gray Spartan didn't replied, he just put on his helmet and wandered with his sight over the mountains surrounding the valley. Anna felt disappointment and lost her glare on the wheel of the vehicle, driving in silence during the rest of the travel.

* * *

Both Spartans arrived to the UNSC checkpoint of the valley, which was now a completely equipped operation field full of soldiers, small bases and vehicles of all sorts, Anna and Noble six got out from the warthog and began to walk in direction to one building at the end of the installations.

Anna walked beside a falcon: the army's utilitarian helicopter, she lowered her head to not crash it with the helices and protected her eyes with her hand from the dust raising by cause of the vehicle's ignition.

On the distance she saw another Spartan inside a falcon, wearing a green armor, his head was bald and had a fist tattoo on the left side of his face; He was checking a big sniper rifle while he stared deeply at Anna, she saw him and just smiled in response, raising her hand to say 'Hi', the mysterious Spartan wrinkled his nose bridge.

"The O.N.I. believes that the deployment of a Spartan team is a waste… I'm not agree!" Noble six heard a voice coming from inside the metallic building, he and the female Spartan were standing in front of a dark room where their new partners were, one of them, with a black armor and a skull on his visor returned the glare to them.

"Commander" Suddenly another female Spartan stopped them, placing a robotic arm forwards them, also she had short black hair and a scar above her left eye.

a Spartan in blue armor turned, the light of the computer in front of him showed a man with dirt on his face and short black hair too.

"Those are the new, number six and seven…" A gigantic Spartan in green armor replied, sitting in a table with his helmet off, showing an adult man, almost bald but with a bulky mustache.

"…Big guy… scary…" Anna whispered to six.

"Kat, you read their records?" The black Spartan asked, pointing a huge, sharp knife to the newcomers.

"Only what wasn't covered with black ink…" the female Spartan with the robot arm replied.

"Has someone claimed the authority yet?" The blue Spartan asked to the computer.

"The O.N.I. thinks it may be local insurrection, five months ago they did something similar on Harmony: They attacked one antenna to leave us eyeless and earless, then they stole two cargo ships from a drydock, that cannot be happening here… Reach is too important… I want that antenna operating, noble one!"

"Sir: Consider it done"

"Good, we'll see us at the other side, over and out." The computer turned off, the blue Spartan parted from the monitor and approached to the new members of his team.

"Spartans!" He spoke "I'm Carter, leader of the noble team"

"Commander, sir!" Noble six answered respectfully.

"Hi!" Anna squealed with a hand of the air.

"She is Kat, noble two" Carted said, pointing to the female Spartan in light blue armor with the robotic arm "Emile and Jorge, four and five" he referred to the green giant Spartan and the intimidating black Spartan respectively.

"Noble six, noble seven, come with me" everyone went out from the building and walked to the falcon outside "I ain't gonna lie spartans: Don't expect that the team will receive you with open arms, I conform with having noble at full capacity again" he began to speak while he was putting on his helmet.

Anna, Six and Carter boarded the falcon they just passed a few minutes ago, the vehicle was about to lift up from the ground.

"One more thing" Carted said, having the two Spartans sitting in front of him "I have seen your records, even what the O.N.I. tried to hide, Six: I'm glad to count with your abilities, but we're a team, leave aside all that lone wolf thing, right?"

"Yes sir" Six replied.

"And Anna…" Anna attended with a bright smile "The O.N.I. remarks your courage and determination, despite all your failures; I'm pleased with your participation, just try to keep the mistakes the lowest possible, alright?"

"I'll do my best captain!" She answered cheerfully, moving her hand upwards to her forehead, making a military salute.

"Commander" Carter corrected.

"Bless you!"

"Welcome to Noble" The falcon raised from the land, flying away from the base to fade into the clouds in direction to their new mission.

* * *

**Winter Contingency**

**July 24, 2552, 1200 Hours**

**Visegrad's Antenna Station, Planet Reach**

"Noble six: check that body"

Kat said: The noble team was inside the antenna station, just after having an exhaustive encounter with the source of the problem: The Covenant was on Reach, humanity was in sight of the mightiest alien army in the galaxy, and not even the military fortress world was enough to face them.

Six walked slowly to the end of a dark passageway, approaching to the corpse of an old man, a scientist in the ground, he crouched to inspect it, Anna was following him, peeking from above his shoulder to see the body by herself.

"Oh god! Go to your happy place, go to your happy place…" She muttered frightened, parting her view from the floor with a disgusted expression on her face: she never got used to see human dead bodies, especially when they were covered in blood.

"And the rest of your unity?" Noble six raised his sight to look at Carter, who was talking with an injured marine, resting in one corner of the control room.

"We splitted…" the marine barely answered "I d-don't think t-they… on radio s-sounded pretty b-bad…"

"It's alright private, we'll get you a field surgeon…"

Six returned to the corpse, moving it to find the death cause, Anna was glaring at him in fear, like if she were watching a horror movie. When the gray Spartan moved the body's shoulder, something fell from it to the ground.

"W-what's that!?" Anna gasped sharply, Six grabbed the mysterious object: It looked like some sort of chip.

"I found something…" He said, holding the chip in the air to Kat, who was standing in front of many computer terminals, all damaged by plasma energy.

"I'll take it Six!" She abruptly tore off the object from the male spartan's fingers "Is not of your buissness…"

Something awoke within Anna when she saw that scene "Hey! You can't just-"

"Over here!" Jorge cut off Anna just in time "There's someone alive" he shouted to his partners from the other side of the room, struggling to bring at sight a female survivor that was hiding under small stairs, everyone glared at him.

"Come on out! Easy! We're not going to hurt you…" The gigantic Spartan said to calm the hysterical woman.

"NRGH! ARGH! NEE! MEINENINEN! RGH! NEE! HAYO BECKEN! ARGH! GEREHB NEE! JOI NEE!" She shouted in a strange language, fighting to release herself from Jorge's grab, but it was useless.

"Calm down! And I will release you…" Recognizing that she was unable to counter the Spartan, the survivor finally relaxed.

"Jorge!" Carter called.

"Is she hurt?" Anna asked.

"I got It" Jorge Replied.

(THUM!) By surprise one of the Aliens: An Elite in a golden armor fell from a ventilation duct in the roof to land where Jorge and the female were, trying to slice them both with an energy sword but the Spartan was fast enough to avoid the attack and protect the survivor in the process.

"WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!" Carter shouted when two more elites landed on the room, the Spartans opened fire at the reptilian humanoids to take them down, but they were protected by their energy shields that shined in a bright blue, covering their alien bodies when the bullets bounced on them.

The first elite lunged against the Spartans once again, only to hit the walls, the covenant soldier realized that his energy shield wouldn't last forever under the bullet rain and began to run away through the dark passageway from where the noble team entered into the control room.

"UGH! OW! HEY!" On his run the alien pushed Anna back fiercely, making her lose her stance and fall to the ground, stunned she only was able to see the beast running and vanishing in the darkness.

Before she could react: another of the elites grabbed her tight by the neck with his four long fingers, raising her from the floor and holding her close to him in a victorious, threatening motion.

"Um… hi, where your friend is going?" She stupidly asked, freezing at the black eyes of the beast ,who roared in her face, showing the rows of sharp teeth protruding from his four jaws, The elite Attempted to kill her with a large energy dagger coming out from his fist, fortunately in the last moment Anna diverted the slice away from her throat.

Finally the covenant soldier released Anna when Noble six abruptly kicked him away, the elite moved backwards, escaping from the gray Spartan.

Tired but quickly Anna stood up anew, recovering her assault rifle from the ground and getting back some composure to face the enemy once again.

"Thanks" she said to six breathless "Geez! I'm gonna' have nightmares with that tonight…"

Then the noble team witnessed how the elites, cowardly took the injured marine as a hostage and approached to one door in the back wall: The Spartans were pointing their rifles to them, prepared to shoot in any moment but the beasts ran away.

"Target's escaping!" Emile said "Permission to go after him!"

"Negative!" Carter replied "Stay in the entrance! Two: Take care of her" Kat followed the command and returned to protect the female survivor.

"Five, six and seven! Clear the exit!" So Jorge, Six and Anna walked out from the room, beginning to chase the elites through dark the corridor from where they could hear the hostage struggling and screaming, six reloaded his assault rifle as Jorge closed the door behind them.

"Focus" The gray Spartan coldly said to Anna "I won't be able of saving you every time you get distracted…" Anna swallowed and nodded in response.

* * *

**O.N.I. Sword Base**

**July 26, 2552, 1126 Hours**

**Sword Base**

"CLEAR!" Emile shouted at the wind "THAT'S HOW IT'S DONE SPARTAN!"

The O.N.I. solicited the intervention of the Noble team to protect and secure the Sword Base from an imminent covenant strike on land and air due to the value of these installations, still the whole complex remained in ruins after the battle, but surely today it was a victory for human kind.

Anna, Emile and Six took care of rejecting the final covenant troops and phantom dropships from the building with help of loud rocket launchers; they were standing in front of a huge aperture in the base, surrounded by ashes, smoke and fire, and of course: the corpses of many fallen elites and brave soldiers that gave their lives to secure triumph.

The three Spartans stared at the sky, contemplating how the remaining covenant ships, along with the gigantic purple corvette that covered the sun began to withdraw from the base.

"Roger that, noble team" one voice sounded on the radios "Orbital defense is ready to shoot" and just when the giant ship was about to cross the mountains on the horizon, it was severally impacted by a powerful shot that fell from above the clouds, abruptly sending it to the sea around the complex.

"YES! TAKE THAT!" Anna shouted fiercely at the scene, standing nearly too close to the edge of the aperture "AND NEXT TIME STAY AWAY FROM OUR WORLD!" she yelled again, crouching to pick up one piece of rubble in the ground and throwing it away in direction to the enemy.

"OH, WHOAH! WHOA! WHOA-" Suddenly the floor ended when Anna stepped forward to throw the rock and she started to lose the stance, standing only by her tip toes on the edge, trying to tilt her body backwards and shaking her arms to avoid a five hundred meters fall into the abyss.

"WHOOAAAAH-" And just when she was about to fell from the aperture, something held her back, preventing her from falling: Anna relaxed her body and opened her eyes to find herself steady in the air, she felt the grab on her arm and turned to see who it was.

"What did I told you about getting distracted?" Noble six said to Anna, pulling her back to safe firm ground, then losing his sight on the horizon.

"Ad-At-At- Atta-um-I-I…" Anna was trebling, blushing like a strawberry while she tried to speak but only nonsense came out from her mouth, the gray Spartan ignored her mumbling, so she kept silence and also glared to the covenant ship collapsing on the water.

"Beautiful, Isn't it?" Jorge: The gigantic Spartan came out from the shadows and approached to the other two "Somebody should take a picture…"

"Well, if you consider war as 'beautiful'" Anna said "But I'm not saying that it is! Still I think It's very pretty! The scene! Not war! Because I think war is abominable! Though I don't judge you for thinking that war is beautiful! And truly I don't think that you're bad or something for thinking that way! Which I'm not saying you do! I'm just saying that there are other ways to solve conflicts like… like… Oh dear god…" she finished her babbling by face-palming herself.

Jorge laughed slightly at her mumbling "Hey! Good job! The two of you…" he continued, giving a pat on the shoulder to both.

"I do my best" Six replied calmly.

"Thank you, it really means a lot coming from you…" Anna answered.

"Don't worry; you're doing it great…" The gigantic Spartan embraced them both by their necks.

"Five! Six! Seven!" Carter called from the communicator "Come down to the laboratory: Dr. Halsey wants Intel and the command says we're at her disposal"

"Excuse Me!?" Jorge replied, placing his fingers at one side of his helmet "I thought I heard 'Halsey'"

"Halsey!?" Anna squealed cheerfully, almost jumping on the air.

"That's right" Carter confirmed.

"Understood, we'll be there…" Jorge finished, and then the three of them began to walk away from the aperture to enter into the building "He doesn't need to tell me twice, I've been at her disposal for a half-life…"

"I haven't seen Halsey in years!" Anna added "I wonder if she reminds me…"

"Trust me, she NEVER forgets anything…"

* * *

**Nightfall**

**August 11, 2552, 2630 Hours**

**Dark Zone**

Late at night in a bleak rock valley: One phantom dropship was doing a recon search, pointing a blinding flashlight to every corner of the place to find survivors… and terminate them, fortunately the hunt was in vain, so the ship left the place, losing itself behind the cliff and now only being visible the horizon, the stars and a distant planet in the sky.

When the phantom finally fade away, Noble three, Jun: The Spartan in green armor with a huge sniper rifle emerged from his hideout among some rocks, he stood up completely and moved his head in a motion for telling his partners that it was safe keep moving.

Noble six came out from the shades, walking fast but carefully on a projecting rock that worked as safe land, only a few inches away from the edge and a dangerous fall. The gray Spartan climbed without problems on the rocks, fearless at the elevation of the cliff.

"Bravo Recon Team Reporting" Jun said through the radio, Noble six was already with him "Three and Six in position… The place is full, Kat…"

"We'll get closer" Kat answered "Intervention may be necessary"

"Roger that…" Jun finished the transmission "Hhmp! When Kat runs something: 'Intervention' is always necessary…"

"Wait, Only you and Six? Where's seven?"

"She wasn't with you?" Three asked to six, both looking confused at each other.

"Anna, Where are you? We're already in position!" Six questioned with his fingers on one side of his helmet, attempting to contact with the female Spartan.

"I-I'M ON MY WAY!" Anna shouted in response "JUST A SEC! Geez…" she had the habit of not wearing her helmet, she says that she feels as she is shutting out people with it, so she prefers to show her face… the problem starts when she doesn't realize that the helmet has functions… like quiet communication with your team mates to avoid shouting and reveal your location to the enemy.

Noble three and Six returned to see the path they used a few moments ago, searching for Anna, who was still on the rock path, walking ridiculously slow with her back the closest possible to the stone wall and avoiding to look at the cliff.

"Be quiet Anna!" Jun complained "The covenant mustn't know we're here!"

"I KNOW! I KNOW! I know…" She answered, yelling at the four winds again "It's just… I hate heights…" she said, closing her eyes tightly and trembling on each step.

Jun sighed deeply "Who thought this was a good idea?" he said, shaking his head to the sides in exasperation, Noble six shrugged in response…

Finally Anna began to climb the last rock, stepping up carefully on the big stone where her partners were, crawling and slowly standing up again as other the Spartans were growing irritated.

"I-I did it? I'm alive?" Anna asked to herself, palpating every inch of her red armor to check that all were on its place.

"I DID IT! WOOHOO!" She exclaimed loudly, throwing her arms to the air between small hops, then lashing against Noble Six and hugging him in a happiness outbreak.

"So? What's next?"

"RRRGAARRGHH! VUHKUH THEE!" Suddenly one distant roar sounded on the whole valley and made the three Spartans enter into an alert stance.

"Farewell surprise attack…" Jun said, glancing at the landscape formed by more cliffs, dead vegetation and rocks full of enemy soldiers, apparently the covenant troops noticed their presence, thanks to Anna…

"Oh Crap! Sorry…" Anna apologized "But… Is not that bad! There's just a bunch of them, we can take them down! Working together!" she added with a huge, nervous smirk, Noble six placed his hand on his visor.

"Hmph! You're starting to like me, kid; I wish I could be that oblivious to reality"

"Umm… thanks? I guess…"

"Here! You may need this!" Noble three said, throwing a rectangular black object to six, who caught it in the air "High-speed drillers, can took off an elite's hat from two thousand meters away, and they're not cheap, so use them wisely!"

They gray Spartan nodded in silence and recharged his sniper rifle with that ammunition clip, then the Spartans splitted as the blue and green plasma shots began to fly on the air, right on their direction.

"We'll be in touch!" Jun said as he started to climb some stones, seeking to find a strategic place from where he could snipe calmly, Anna and Six on the other hand descended to the battlefield on a slope, raising dust on their ways.

Noble six landed first, he quickly took cover behind a huge rock to avoid the projectiles, then turned to see Anna, who was still slipping down.

"YAHOOOO!" She yelled during her fall, landing gracefully on the soil and quickly approaching to her mate, crouching to protect herself as well from the burning plasma shots impacting against the huge stone.

"Who says we can't have fun on the army!?" She began to speak with her lips twitching into a smile "Now, can you please tell me again how this thing works?" She referred to her own sniper rifle, grabbing it in the wrong way, six only sighed in exasperation.

* * *

**Tip Of The Spear**

**August 12, 2552, 1000 Hours**

**Szurdok Hill, Ütközet, Planet Reach**

"Spartans!" Carter said through the radio "I'm on my way with a Falcon! We'll pick you up when you disable the tower's shield"

After numerous covenant's forces deployments all over the continent, The UNSC was coerced to respond with an equal attack on all frontiers; The purpose of this battle was unable the alien refugees on the planet to prevent the arrival of any additional enemy forces.

Their current mission led the noble team to a gigantic covenant structure on a rock valley: An alien skyscraper protected by an energy barrier which covered an important ground extension and made impossible any air strike, so Noble six and Anna had to take care of it, using a huge gravitational impulse as an elevator to reach the control room on the top of the tower.

Both arrived to the control room: It was small for the structure's size, the only passageway was curve, the walls and the floor were blue and had many apertures that connected with the outside.

"Geez! I think I'm gonna-" Anna covered her mouth, she hated badly the heights, the gravitational elevator made her dizzy and she was about to throw up in the control room.

"Concentrate, we need to turn off this thing" Noble six said to her, wielding his assault rifle and leaving the elevator to search the main controls.

"I'll be fine… just… give me a sec…" She answered, resting her hands on her knees in a weak stance, breathing heavily to reduce the airsickness, then she slowly recovered from the nausea and walked to catch up with the other Spartan.

"What a gentleman…" she muttered on her way.

"There are the controls" the gray Spartan said, pointing with his finger to a red hologram only a few meters away from them.

"Hurry Spartans!" Carter called again on the communicators "There's a frigate waiting to destroy the tower as soon as the barrier disappears!"

"Understood" Six replied "Cover me while I deactivate the sh-GARGH!"

Noble six never finished that sentence when he was abrupt and mightily pushed away, the crash of his armor against the wall sounded on the whole room, he struggled to stand up again but the hit left him temporally out of combat.

On his knees, the gray Spartan's blurry sight allowed him to see what attacked him: It was an elite in white armor, brandishing an energy sword, the covenant soldier grabbed him tight by the neck and raised him from the floor with just one arm and with intention to kill him with the other.

"LET HIM GO YOU FREAK!" And just when the elite was about to chop the Spartan with the sword: Anna stopped the beast's arm by grabbing it with hers, the elite turned and stared at her threateningly, still Anna faced him fearless.

"UGH!" By waving the arm with the sword: The elite strongly jostled Anna almost without effort, violently landing five meters away from him, then the covenant soldier released the other Spartan and approached to the girl that challenged him, seeking to terminate her.

Facing the ground Anna stretched her arm, attempting to grab her assault rifle and struggling to stand up anew.

"ARGH!" Just when her fingertips barely touched the weapon: The white-armored elite kicked fiercely Anna's face to impend her recover her gun, threatening with dislocate her jaw; the hit was strong enough to stun the female Spartan and momently made her loss her memory about who she was and what she was doing there.

"UNNFF!" Anna groaned when she felt a heavy weight crushing her back as all the air on her lungs escaped through her mouth, breathing became impossible: She was weakened and defenseless.

Turning the most she could but not much, Anna only saw by the corner of her eye the elite with his foot above her, roaring and raising his energy sword to stab it right in her torso, she coughed blood and closed her eyes tightly, preparing herself for the upcoming wave of pain… that never arrived in first place.

The pressure on Anna's back was gone, she gave a deep, loud breath, then she turned completely to sit in the floor, contemplating shocked the scene of the elite fighting to throw off noble six from his back, the gray Spartan had his arms surrounding the covenant soldier's neck in a stranglehold.

"DISABLE THE SHIELDS!" Six yelled at Anna while he did her best to restrain the elite, his body was shaking like a cape on the beast's back "I'LL TAKE CARE OF HIM!"

"B-BU-BUT I DON'T KNOW HOW TO-" Anna replied, quickly standing up again.

"JUST GO!" The gray Spartan shouted when he felt the grab weakening, Anna made a hard choice and began to run in direction to the tower's controls, she didn't saw the reptilian-humanoid crashing his back against the wall to crush six and release from the grab.

Anna stood up in front of the controls: It was a smooth, purple desk with nothing resting on it, but floating above there was a Red hologram, a small scale projection of the tower, surrounded by tens of strange alien symbols twinkling and rotating around in a mix of different colors.

Anna froze, she was hypnotized with the complex projection: She never had the chance to see things like this on her past missions or even back on Arendalle.

"_Wow… Magic?" _She whispered with a soft smile on her lips, looking in silence the shining hologram dancing in front of her sapphire eyes, moving slowly her hand upwards to feel it…

"ANNA!"

"WAIT! WHAT!?" Anna gasped sharply when that shout awoke her from the trance, she shook her head several times to set her mind in the current situation.

"RIGHT! THE SHIELDS! Umm…" She placed her hands on her head in despair, unsure of how she could manipulate something when she wasn't even able to touch it; Anna slipped her fingers through the hologram, just crossing it and destabilizing it momentarily, still nothing changed on the tower or anything else.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? TURN IT OFF!" Anna glanced at six: He was being pushed against the wall by the elite, struggling desperately to keep the energy sword only a few inches away from his throat, she was scaring, she had to do something before his partner dies.

"TURN OFF YOU STUPID THING! PLEASE!" Anna yelled, slamming her fist against the hologram, tears started to appear in her eyes, the mission, his mate's life depended on her but she didn't knew what to do, she collapsed in the desk and hit repeatedly the projection between quiet sobs.

"ANNA!"

(BIP)

Suddenly the hologram made a noise and vanished from the purple desk, Anna raised her sight to see this, crying again with a huge smile; Noble six looked at the female spartan while he pulled out his combat knife from the neck of the dead elite lying on the floor.

"_She did it…" _He thought, glancing to the outside: The gigantic blue shield covering part of the valley finally fade away, allowing Carter's falcon to enter in the scene and start the evacuation.

"Anna!" Six called "We have to go, the frigate is about to shoot!" Anna stood up, wiping the tears from her eyes and running to gather with his mate, both quickly ran out of the tower, the falcon was there but a few meters far from the protruding floor of the skyscraper.

The gray Spartan jumped first into the compact helicopter, his stretching arm being catched on the air by the gigantic Spartan Jorge, hanging from the falcon at a height of seven hundred meters, Jorge pulled up six to help him enter into the vehicle; At last he entered and sat, sighing in relief.

"YOUR TURN ANNA!" Jorge called.

"U-UMmm… G-Guys!? C-Can you approach a little!?" Anna yelled frightened, she was standing in the edge of the tower, almost kneeling because of the fear that heights caused on her, trembling like a mouse and unable to move.

"ANNA! WE HAVE TO GO! JUMP!" Carter replied from inside the falcon.

Anna hesitated, she gave a quick peek down, the gigantic rocks and the destroyed vehicles spreading all over the valley looked like small toys, the dizziness returned, she glanced back at the falcon floating away from the safe ground, she bit her lip and closed tight her eyes to gather some bravery.

"YOU CAN DO IT! LET'S GO!" The female Spartan retraced a little over her steps, then with all the strength on her legs she began to run in direction to the helicopter in front of her, jumping into it just before reaching the end of the floor.

"AAAAAHHHHH!" Anna screamed on the air, avoiding to look down during her leap of faith and stretching her arms the farthest she could to reach the falcon… but she didn't, instead Jorge and six caught her before it was too late, making the vehicle unbalance a little.

"Don't look down, please…" The gigantic Spartan joked; there she was: Hanging in the air like a kitten on a tree branch, carefully Anna opened one eye, and then the other, the breeze gave her chills, almost making her forget her terror to heights.

"Oh Crap! I looked down!" Again she tightened her eyes and compacted her body in fetal position, now resembling to a christmas sphere, both Spartans pulled up her partner inside the falcon, she sat in the floor of the vehicle.

"Good job spartan, I knew you could make it…" Carter said, watching Anna breathe wearily on the ground "Get us out of here" he gave a few hits on the pilot's cabin wall, then the falcon began to fly away from the tower.

"Control, here noble one: The tower's shields are down, you can open fire now!"

"Roger that noble one, all land units: Frigate three one eight is approaching" Another voice in the radio answered "MAC ammunition is has been authorized"

"MAC ammunition!?" Jorge questioned worriedly "In the atmosphere!?"

"It's to attract their attention" Carter replied.

"What's MAC ammunition?" Anna asked raising an eyebrow.

"Our last move! Hold on something!" With that Anna witnessed stunned the gigantic human ship passing right next to their falcon, to her it looked like a building flying by art of magic, making everything tremble and reflecting the sun on its way to the covenant tower.

"…wooow…" Anna whispered opening her eyes wide and letting her jaw fall a little when the frigate threw a mighty blast to the tower, creating a deafening thunder that echoed on the whole valley and made the covenant skyscraper collapse like broken glass into the land.

But suddenly the clouds above the human ship started to shine in a dark red, almost like a second sun, then one blinding beam fell from the sky and impacted severally the frigate, destroying it in just a matter of seconds, the ship began to fall down, surrounded by fire and dark smoke.

"T-that was the MAC thing too?"

"NO! NO! THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!" Jorge Panicked.

"Grafton Frigate!? Do you read!? DO YOU READ!?"

"The frigate is only ashes now! We have to get out of here!" Carter yelled on the communicator.

So the falcon transporting the noble team members left the scene, leaving behind the remains of the covenant tower and the frigate falling to the ground, gathering both in the same graveyard, and of course: The gigantic covenant corvette flying over the place, covering the sun and any hope of victory.

* * *

**Long Night Of Solace (Part I)**

**August 13, 2552, 2007 Hours**

**Szurdok Hill, Ütközet, Planet Reach**

The rock valley was completely submerged in a sandstorm, deafening thunders sounded fiercely above the clouds, the covenant fleet darkened the sky as one ultra heavy walking assault platform "Scarab" passed through the mountains: The roar of its plasma blast and the mechanical noises of its walk made everything tremble like an earthquake.

The noble team took refuge on a lonely cave at the feet of a mount; all the Spartans went inside it to protect themselves from the storm and the enemy… everyone except Anna…

The female Spartan stared in silence at the super covenant vehicle fading away, not being bothered by the raising sand, or by the raging winds shaking her red hair, she wondered how they managed to put foots into a building and made it walk like, as its name says: A scarab.

Noble six felt the need to glance back; he stood at the cave's entrance and saw her partner with a lost glare on the horizon, so the gray Spartan returned over his steps and approached to Anna, seeking to find what perturb her usually cheerful mate.

"Anna? What's wrong?" Six asked a little concerned, a deep breath was his response.

"Hey there! Umm … six! … You know, it's weird to call you 'six' all the time, you never mentioned your name, do you?"

"Just call me Six, trust me: It's better that way, what's bothering you?"

"Nothing really! It's just that… Once Halsey told me that all this was for a greater good… I never knew why she picked me, I mean: I was just a little girl back then…" Anna let a small tear ran down from her freckled cheek, the gray Spartan attended without any word.

"…One night I dreamed with my home… I-I can barely remember my family, my sister Elsa: W-We used to play together… we were so close… and now… Geez! One day I almost forgot her name, AND THE NAME OF MY HOME!"

Six felt pity for the girl: He was amazed by the fact that, despite the crude horrors of this war, Anna was still capable of doing something that most of the soldiers, most of the Spartans are not anymore… she was capable of feel, of being human among killing machines… still he spoke nothing… after all he was "hyper-lethal"… but also curious…

"I dream with the day when all this is over… so I can return with my family, but sometimes… it seems that it will never end… and I'm not doing anything about it! I-I just-t keep screwing everything a-and risking the lives of others because I'm too stupid to take care of myself!"

Anna was falling to pieces…

"FUCK!" She scolded herself, but also hugging herself between painful sobs; suddenly Anna felt a hand on her shoulder, instinctively she turned to see the gray Spartan behind her, the tears stopped running down.

"I know why Halsey picked you…" Six spoke "You never give up… despite all your failures: You always go forward… no matter what… the army needs more soldiers like you… Jorge told me that Halsey never mistakes, and I trust him… we trust in you…"

Anna blushed in a deep red; her sapphire eyes shined in emotion as she opened her mouth several times to answer, but nothing came out.

"Come on: let's go back with the others" Six began to walk in direction to the cave but by surprise something held him back, when he reacted he felt Anna's arms around his neck and her head resting on his shoulder.

"I-I never thanked you for saving my life…" Anna released six from the embrace, who stared at her and nodded in response.

After that both Spartans walked in silence among the sandstorm to the cave where the rest of the noble team still was.

"That thing is crushing us and we're waiting for backup!?" Kat discussed "They'll be backing up a graveyard!"

"All our nuclear bombs are out of range or lost with the ships carrying them" Carter replied, both were at the entrance of the cave, the others were inside, noble six and Anna arrived to the scene.

"Hey! Stop fighting!" Quickly Anna stepped between Carter and Kat "What's going on!?"

Both of them just started at her and simply returner to their debate.

"You're preaching to the converted"

"How converted?"

"I know that look, Kat"

"You can say 'No'"

"NO!"

"You don't even want to hear it?"

"Fine, I'll hear it"

"Anna, do you remember that accident a couple of years back?" Kat asked.

"Wait, which accident?" She replied with a confused look on her eyes.

"Colony ship in route to Cygnus? Severally damaged"

"Wait! How do you-" Anna has more past than we think.

"A slip-space drive malfunction, right?" Carter cut off Anna.

"Actually it worked fine: When it fired, it teleported half the ship to hell, because certain strawberry blonde in our team" Kat glanced playfully to Anna beside her "mounted improperly the drive after the overhaul"

"T-THAT WASN'T MY FAULT!" Anna exclaimed, pouting her lip and crossing her arms "Nobody told me exactly to put it correctly! Besides… I'm a soldier, not a scientist…"

"And this is relevant?" Carter questioned.

"A certain covenant super carrier could, with some assistance suffer the same unfortunate accident"

"Even for you Kat, that's-"

"Inspired?"

"Not the word I would use…"

"What's going on?" Jorge and Emile emerged from the shadows of the cave.

"Go ahead, explain…"

Kat attempted to grab Emile's huge combat knife from its sheath attached to his right shoulder plate, with catlike reflexes: the black Spartan stopped the female Spartan from stealing his property.

"May I?" Kat asked serenely with her robotic arm still on the knife.

"Don't cut yourself… again…" Emile released Kat's hand, allowing her to take the knife.

Kat kneeled and with the knife began to trace a plan on the sand under her feet.

"Objective: Destroy the covenant carrier in orbit above us, Method: A slip-space drive instead of the nukes we don't have, Delivery system: Us" The rest of the Spartans stared at her.

"Solvable? We'll see about that, we're gonna need something to get us there, that and a slip-space drive" Kat stood up anew "Thank you for sharing" she gave back the knife to Emile, who took it and save it again on its sheath.

"So, all we need is an orbit-capable transport and the single most expensive piece of equipment made by man" Carter completed.

"Well as a soldier in the field I couldn't possibly have access to those kinds of resources, so: A good place to look might be… I don't know… The nearest nonexistent launch program in the nonexistent Sabre Program dismissed by three administrations as a 'preposterous' rumor…" Kat added.

"And in which our newest members certainly never were pilots…" She said looking at Anna and Noble six, followed by Emile, Jorge, Jun and Carter.

"Psst! Wha- what's a Sabre?" Anna asked in a whisper, leaning closer to Emile.

"Have you ever been on a roller coaster?" The black Spartan replied.

"A-A rolling what?"

"You're gonna love it… just don't look down…"

"Oh dear god!"

"All we need is Holland's permission…" Kat said.

"Good luck with that!" Carter answered.

"Well, you're going to ask him…" Kat passed him a small communication device.

Carter mover his head to the sides, taking the device and standing up from the rock he was sitting in.

"There's no way in hell he's gonna go for this…"

* * *

**-Warthog: **The M12 United Nations Space Command four-wheel all-terrain vehicle, more commonly known as the **Warthog**, or simply the **Hog: I**t is a highly mobile, all-wheel-drive, all-wheel-steering force application vehicle configured to become a troop carrier, armament carrier, ambulance, reconnaissance vehicle, or communications vehicle.

**-Falcon: **Is a versatile, tilt-and transverse-rotor, multi-purpose utility helicopter troop transport aircraft of the United Nations Space aircraft's crew consists of one pilot, two crewmen who may serve as door gunners, and three passengers.

**-Covenant: **Is a political, military, religious and theocratic affiliation hegemony made up of multiple alien species that maintain control over a large portion of the Orion Arm in the Milky Way galaxy.

**-Elites: **Also known as "Sangheili" They are a saurian species of fierce, proud, strong, agile, and intelligent warriors, as well as skilled combat tacticians. Sangheili are muscular and stand around between 2.2 and 2.6 meters tall. Their jaws are quadruple-hinged, with an upper jaw and four mandible-like "lips." Their hands are tetradactyl, having four digits; two middle fingers, and two opposing thumbs on the outside for grasping. Their legs are digitigrade, with short upper and lower legs, and elongated tarsals, using the distal and intermediate phalanges to support their weight when walking.

**-Energy Sword: **The Type-1 Energy Weapon/Sword is a close quarters weapon of the Covenant Empire, for exclusive use of the Sangheili. It consists of a curved hilt, housing an energy storage module and a device for projecting the plasma which forms the blade.

**-Phantom Dropship: **Is a Covenant troop transport used primarily to deploy ground units and equipment swiftly and efficiently to the battlefield, while providing suppressive fire for Covenant forces.

**-Magnetic Accelerator Cannon: **Is a large coil gun that serves as the primary offensive weapon for UNSC warships, MAC guns are the only non-nuclear weapons in the UNSC arsenal capable of effectively reducing or destroying Covenant capital ships' energy shields.

**-Scarab: **The Type-47 Ultra Heavy Assault Platform, more commonly known as the "Scarab": Is a Covenant mobile fortress adapted for use in combat, its quadrupedal behemoths are typically deployed from low or medium orbit, or from high atmosphere. They are used to attack heavily-defended structures and emplacements and often lend quick, but unstoppable support to Covenant troops on the ground.

**-Sabre Program: **Is an experimental program conducted by the O.N.I. intended to develop a well-armed and maneuverable surface-launched space-superiority starfighter, the product of the program, was the YSS-1000 "Sabre"-class starfighter, and several launch sites were maintained which were used for orbital defense during the Fall of Reach.


	4. The Fall Of Reach (Part II)

What?! You thought I was about to dump and forget this story?!

I owe you guys an apology; It hasn't been easy for me these days since school is breaking my balls by not giving me enough time to arrange this story properly (and do other things in general), so take this little filler chapter as a peace offer, I advanced the process for all of you, this chapter was intended to be part of another chapter and not one single update.

Now: I wanna thank you guys, to all of you for your patience, even if you are few, you don't have idea of how much I appreciate your reviews and favorites, it encourages me to continue and trust in my storytelling abilities.

Special Thanks to Aztec13, who has been reading this fic since the moment I uploaded the first chapter, to jaylene olebar 3, who I don't know if she's new in the Halo universe or not but in any case let's give her the welcome she deserves, to Ballistica for being so patient for this fourth chapter and last but not least to you for being reading this, Thank you all, you guys deserve a medal, this chapter goes for you and I'm already working on the next chapter, so I hope I won't take too long for updating, see'ya at the virtual battlefield

* * *

**Spartan Anna – 151**

**Episode IV: The Fall Of Reach (Part II)**

* * *

**Long Night Of Solace (Part II)**

**August 14, 2552, 1648 Hours**

**Covenant-Occupied Space, Inside The Corvette, In Orbit Around The Planet Reach**

"Dammit! … So… It's gonna' be like that…"

So far, so good: Colonel Holland supported Kat's plan; The noble team travelled to the nearest Sabre program's launch base, which was extremely guarded by covenant forces, still the Spartans forced their path inside the base to reach the only ship they could get from there.

It was on Anna, noble six and Jorge to board the sabre and go up in orbit to start noble two's contingency; Anna found herself coerced to do all the things she hated more than anything: She had to kill for duty, maybe is late to recall that she tried to be a pacifist and avoid firefights most of the times (but she failed at it… most of the times).

Even she had to leave aside her extraordinary phobia about heights for the mission, because… well… outer space also means really, really high…

Carter and the rest of the noble team were left behind in the base to secure their partner's way out of the planet.

Now in orbit, noble six and Anna aboard of a sabre, along with the giant 'Savannah' frigate and a small sabre fleet attacked a covenant corvette with the objective of infiltrate it to place the slip-space drive inside and lead the ship to the super carrier for the detonation, similar to a Trojan horse.

The plan seemed to be working as expected: The infiltration was successful, even when the covenant forces opposed fierce resistance, most of the soldiers died during the boarding, only remaining alive the three Spartans on the ship's hangar.

That gigantic room was surreal: It had an oval structure, deep purple and bright blue predominated on the walls, the corners were decorated with rows of twinkling lights, on both sides of the hall there were huge openings connecting to the space, only being separated by blue energy shields that worked as windows.

Inside the place there was Anna, noble six and Jorge, a pelican that carried the slip-space drive, severally damaged due to the crossfire between the marines and the covenant troopers within the ship, and of course: Their corpses on the floor as well…

The gigantic Spartan was in front of a computer connected to the improvised bomb, doing his best to activate it properly.

"… wow…" Anna on the other hand was fascinated with the beautiful image of the stars, Reach under the corvette and many other planets on the distance, constellations and the sun outside the ship; even when she had to see through an energy barrier: She had no troubles to appreciate the wonders of the universe; noble six was beside her, just making some company.

"I never thought that space could be this beautiful… I mean: You read about this in the books and… you hear people talking about it but… being up here… and seeing it by yourself, knowing that all this is above the clouds… above our heads… just… wow…" Anna added, and the gray Spartan proved to be a good listener.

"Warning: Distance between this corvette and the covenant super carrier is closing" Auntie DOT: The UNSC's artificial intelligence said to Jorge.

(THUM!) Jorge furiously slammed his fist against the computer.

"What the-?" Anna gave a small hop in surprise when that sound brought her back from the trance that outer-space caused on her, so she and six approached to the pelican to see what was the disturbing about.

"Is there something wrong?" Anna asked, tilting her head to the side like a confused puppy. _how cute…_

"Well, I got good news and bad news…" Jorge turned to his mates and spoke "This bird received many impacts during the crossfire and her thruster gimbal is toast, which means the only way out of this slag heap, is gravity…"

(Silence)

"What!?" Anna questioned loudly, raising one eyebrow as she tried to process the answer inside her brain… it didn't work as expected.

"That means Anna…" Six explained to her "The pelican won't be able of get us out of here, so we will have to jump out from the corvette…"

"Wait, what? You're kidding, right?" he wasn't.

"And the good news?"

"That was the good news…"

"Noble five: we're entering on the covenant super carrier's visual field" The A.I. recalled "Noble five?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah…" the gigantic Spartan replied, taking off his helmet and throwing it to the ground, showing his face "Bad news is: The timer is fried, which means I'm gonna' have to set it manually…"

"Uh- Umm…" Anna timidly called, raising one finger in the air to ask her question.

"That means Anna…" Jorge chuckled slightly and replied "I will have to stay here… to detonate the bomb… by myself…"

"You mean… at a safe distance right?" She questioned "Because… If you stay, and the bomb explodes, and… you're there, while it does… you, you… you know… That would be like, like…"

"That's a one-way trip…" The gray Spartan cut off Anna.

"We all make it sooner or later…" Jorge continued "Better get going, they're gonna' need you two down there… humm… Usually ladies go first but… In this case, I think we can make an exception… "

"Hold on a minute!" Quickly Anna protested "Can someone please tell me what the heck is going on!?"

"Enough, Anna…" Six tried to calm the strawberry blonde.

"No! What you're trying to tell me, is that one of my friends is about to get trapped in the middle of an 'explosive-vacuum' or whatever that 'space drive' thing does! And I must let it go!? Just like that!? No! I won't let that happen! NO SIR!" Suddenly Anna took Six and Jorge by their hands.

"We're in this TOGETHER and we'll leave this place TOGETHER!" The strawberry blonde gave strong stomp on the blue floor, pouting her bottom lip with her head held high.

As response to this: Noble six sighed and Jorge chuckled again; Even when she made a great effort to look imposing… for someone like Anna: That seemed to be an impossible goal.

"Hehehe… I'm gonna miss you kid…" Jorge released his hand from Anna's grab and placed it on the top of her head, stirring her red hair like a father would do with his son.

"Listen: Reach has been good to me, the time has come to return the favor…" The gigantic Spartan turned to noble six and tore off from his neck a couple of dog-tags, giving them to him.

"Don't deny me this…" He said while raising his hand to noble six, who made the same and took it in a friendly hand-shaking.

Keeping that position: Jorge lift up six in the air with just one arm and carried him in direction to the energy shield in the back wall of the hangar.

"No! What are you doing?! Put him down!" Anna demanded fiercely and quickly ran in direction to Jorge, intending to stop him by grabbing his arm, but instead the strawberry blonde found herself being dragged along with noble six, she was no match for the gigantic spartan's strength.

At last they arrived to the energy barrier…

"Tell 'em to make it count…" Jorge said to six before throwing him out from the ship into the space, watching how he started to fall among the remaining rubbles of the destroyed sabres and covenant ships as well.

"NO! SIX!" Powerless: Anna cried and kneeled in the ground, witnessing how her mate, her friend faded away from the corvette to god knows where; her turquoise blue eyes grew watery at the scene.

"What have you done?" Turning slightly: The strawberry blonde asked in a broken whisper.

"He'll be fine…" Jorge replied serenely "You're the one I worry about" He added with some guilt in his voice.

"I-I-I'm not going anywhere!" Quickly Anna stood up again "I'll stay here! With you until the end!" her freckled cheeks turned into a slight red.

"I'm sorry it has to be like this… I'm aware of your… little phobia to heights…"

Right now Anna didn't care about heights, nor even noble six because she trusted in Jorge and believed she would see him again for sure; the only thing she cared now was him: Jorge; since she lost her family a long time ago, she made the promise that no one would be left behind for as long as she could do something about it.

And when Anna was after something: Stubborn was not even close to describe her…

The gigantic Spartan returned over his steps to the pelican and the "bomb", crouching to pick up something from the floor, Anna twisted her eyebrows and tried to peek from her stance but Jorge's armor was interposing.

"Here, this may not be as good as the dog-tags, but… It's a nice parting gift…" Jorge approached to Anna again and placed "that" something between her small, trembling hands.

"Yo-your… helmet?" Shocked and terrified: Anna's sapphire eyes stared at her own reflection in the red visor of a green helmet with a black metal plate on the top of it "B-bu-bu-but you're gonna' need it!" she protested, almost crying.

"No, not to where I'm going… Do me a favor and use this one… take care of it… Halsey gave it to me, I have it since I can remember…"

"I-Is just-t… Not fair!" Anna embraced the helmet against her chest, closing her eyes tightly as the tears began to pour from them like a cascade… she tried to be strong… but instead she began to sob…

"Hey, it's alright…" Suddenly Anna felt a gloved finger caressing her freckled cheek, she slowly opened her eyes to find Jorge offering his hand to her, she hesitated for a brief moment, looking down in a frozen stance, then she started to react and returned the green helmet to his true owner.

"Here, let me do that…" He said while he took the helmet and gently put it on Anna's head: It suited her nicely, even when it was a little big for her, she looked so cute with the silly contrast of the green helmet and her red armor, Jorge chuckle silently, but the strawberry blonde was crying behind the visor.

"You know… Like this… for the first time in forever: I could be noticed by someone! Heh…" Anna made a stupid comment as usual, intending to break the ice and delay the inevitable.

Even so: The strawberry blonde found herself unable to move, she didn't knew if she was elated or gassy, or just afraid; she simply stood there, motionless, surrounding her waist with her arms and avoiding to look at her mate in front of her.

Jorge reacted first and began to move closer to Anna, placing his hands in her back and the rear of her knees to lift her from the ground in a bridal style; carrying the girl: The gigantic Spartan started to walk in direction to the energy barrier at the end of the hangar.

Unconsciously the strawberry blonde closed her eyes and snuggled in the man's arms like a baby during the brief seconds that their walk lasted.

"Remember: Never be afraid, you're valuable, special, don't let anyone tell you the opposite…" Jorge said at the strawberry blonde in his arms, standing in front of the blue shield.

"I-I… I will never… forget…" Once again Anna made herself comfortable; both kept silent in that position for many long seconds, but not the enough ones… this was it…

"Tell the others I'm sorry…" With that Jorge broke the silence and tenderly threw Anna at the barrier.

"Wait! I've changed my miWHOAAAAAAHHH-!" It was too late: Anna's body passed through the energy shield, entering into the dark outer-space and slowly beginning to fall down in direction to Reach.

"I… will always… remember…" During her fall Anna gave a final glance to her mate, her tears crashed against the visor inside Jorge's helmet; then she saw the corvette from outside: It was big, really big and shapeless to her eyes.

While she kept falling: Anna then saw breathless the covenant super-carrier above… It was bigger, almost like a continent… a gigantic, platinum and bright moving continent.

(FWHOOOM!) Suddenly the now small corvette began to shine in a blinding blue light: The slip-space drive went activated, creating a black vacuum that, in a blink of an eye swallowed half the super carrier and released a gigantic blue blast; Anna was reached by such blast at a considerable distance, safe to escape and appropriate to watch. The remains of the destroyed covenant ship began to fall into Reach's surface.

"Warning: Slip-space rupture detected, Slip-space rupture detected," Auntie DOT transmitted to every channel of the radio.

And then from nowhere another covenant super-carried appeared in the planet's orbit in order to replace the destroyed one, followed by other, and then other ship, and other, the pattern kept repeating until a dozen, maybe more of those flying continents arrived to the human world.

"Are you reading this!?"

"Multiple covenant signatures"

"They're everywhere!"

"This can't be happening!"

"Must be the whole damn covenant fleet!" All communications filled with desperate calls and panic cries.

"God help us all..."

* * *

**Exodus**

**Unknown…**

**Unknown…**

Heartbeat… Hearbeat…

Slow and weak heartbeats palpitated beneath the armored chest of the spartan, Anna pressed her ear against his armor, hoping that she would catch a breath, a beat or any sound that told her he was still alive and she didn't failed as soldier, as Spartan… as friend…

"P-please six… don't leave alone, please… you don't…"

Anna gasped in surprise and pulled back when she heard a low breath under the thick metal of the armor, then she felt that cold steel move cautiously under her ear; a bright smile and watery eyes rested on the strawberry blonde's face.

The gray spartan's blurry sight only perceived shapeless shadows and sparkling lights on the distance, noble six blinked and sighed underneath the visor of his helmet, adjusting his senses to the actual scenario.

When his vision refocused again: Noble six found himself lying in snow; then he saw the strawberry blonde spartan kneeling beside him with a small but comforting smile.

With slow and sporadic moves: Noble six sat in the ground, and without thinking it twice: Anna threw herself against him, wrapping her arms on his torso in a strong, charming embrace, she closed her eyes and snuggled as the gray Spartan returned the hug slightly.

"I-I… I thought I'd lost you too…" The strawberry blonde muttered with tears in her eyes, but then she blushed furiously and gasped quietly, quickly pulling out from the embrace.

"I-I-I mean-" Anna began to babble awkwardly "T-Thank the snow queen you're ok! For one minute I-I thought you were, you know: Like that time at the skyscraper-barrier thing! I mean, we just fell from the sky! Like, it was awesome! But I was afraid because of you, I MEAN because of me! Heh! This is awkward! Y-y-you're not awkward, I'm awkward! You're cool! Wait, what?-"

Anna was too focused in not appearing to be an idiot to notice that noble six was looking away from her, he glanced back at the remains of the destroyed covenant super carrier in the horizon:

The alien ship landed in a snowy mountain valley, many rubbles were falling from the sky into the land, surrounded by ashes and fire, making the mountains look like volcanoes, the clouds above were dark, blocking the sunlight and giving a nocturnal sensation to the place.

Well… at least their mission was completed properly, but… something was missing: Noble six glared back at Anna, who returned the gaze smiling warmly… but suddenly that smile of hers left and she began to sob instead, finally breaking into tears.

"IT'S MY FAULT! It's my fault…" Anna cried desperately, hugging six again "I-I should have brought him with me… It's my fault…" she referred to her deceased partner: Jorge.

"No, It's not…" Noble six replied in a whisper "He wanted it that way… you did what you had to…"

"H-h-how many others, six?!"

"Anna?"

"How many others must suffer? Must die for this stupid war?! It will end someday? Why they can't leave us alone? I mean: What harm we did to them?"

Both held together for several seconds, the gray spartan glared back at the horizon, searching for an answer to Anna's prayers… silence was such answer.

"Heroes also fall, Anna…" Noble six finally found his words "Is what makes them heroes…"

"Well… E-enough death heroes!" The strawberry blonde stood up from the snow, wiping the tears from her sapphire eyes.

"Don't know about you but I'm really getting tired of this… this… SHIT!" She exclaimed as she pulled out a magnum from her thigh, making it spin skillfully in her finger like a whirligig, too close to her head.

"YES! SHIT! I like that word! … I'm not sure how but I will finish this war and kick the covenant's butts once in for all! For Jorge… For all those who are still counting on us…"

Noble six was impressed of this new facet of Anna, he always knew that Anna was obstinate and brave, but this kind of motivation was strange in soldiers, even in veterans, and it was everything he needed to stand up again.

Then the gray spartan remembered: He raised his hand and stared deeply at it, still holding the dog-tags that Jorge gave to him before being thrown off from the corvette, he clenched it in his fist, recovering his strength and hopes to see a new tomorrow.

(BANG!) By surprise the gun Anna was playing with fired by itself just a few millimeters above her head, tearing off some lonely hairs.

"W-whoa! T-t-that was a little too close…" Anna said, scratching her ear with her pinky finger when the sound of the shot stunned her slightly.

"Maybe I should be handling that…" The gray Spartan added as he got up from the snowy land, approaching to the red-armored girl in front of him.

Noble six gently took the magnum from the strawberry blonde's hands, then he walked away from her, losing his sight on the distance, on the destroyed covenant ship disturbing the white-painted landscape with flames and dark smoke.

He simply stood there, watching in silence the burning fire and black clouds dancing above the mountains for several seconds… or perhaps minutes, the gray spartan couldn't tell: He lost the track of time…

Suddenly noble six snapped himself out of his own trance, wandering with his sight all over the place to find the strawberry blonde spartan… he found her… and he lost the speech when he did…

Anna was sat in the land with her legs stretched and separated like a child, having what seemed to be a 'snowman' between them, behind her there was another snowman with Jorge's helmet as head.

Both Spartans shared a mutual glare during a long, awkward silence…

"What!?" The strawberry blonde said, pouting her bottom lip "You were too much time unconscious and I got bored of waiting for you to wake up… besides… this place reminds me to my home during winter… well… except for the alien ship of course… heh heh…"

Noble six just kept staring at her, wondering from where she got the carrot for the snowman's nose.

"Hi! I'm Olaf and I like warm hugs!" Anna tried to fake a silly male voice while she moved the stick-arms of the snowman.

(…)

"Wanna' build a snowmaaaan?" She inquired innocently with a huge smirk and her turquoise eyes shining in a flight of fancy.

The gray Spartan just shook his head slowly to the sides in response, not giving her any word or sound, Anna's facial features saddened at this.

With that: Noble six turned his back to Anna and began to walk away from the snowy mountain valley to the hills at the opposite direction, seeking to find the nearest civil settlement.

"Whoa! Hey! Six! Wait!" Anna yelled at her partner when she saw him fade on the horizon, desperately she started to rise from the snow, making sure to not destroy the snowman between her legs as she stood up.

"Be nice and stay there! I'll be back soon, I promise!" She said pointing her finger to the unanimated snowman in the ground as if he were really listening.

"You're coming with me!" The strawberry blonde spartan picked up Jorge's helmet from the snow and ran after noble six, who was now considerably far from her at the top of the hill, they still had a duty to complete.

* * *

**New Alexandria**

**August 23, 2552, 2033 Hours**

**New Alexandria City, Eposz**

For the first time in forever: Noble six allowed himself to actually feel something… 'Depression' is the feeling he chose, and who could blame him?

After jumping out from the corvette in the space and surviving a deadly fall into Reach's surface: Noble six and Anna arrived to the 'New Alexandria' city, where during a fierce covenant invasion, they gathered with many ODST's and UNSC marines, helping them to suppress the alien forces and support the survivor's evacuation.

When both completed that mission and saved numerous lives: Kat finally made contact with noble six, allowing him and Anna to be picked up and rejoin with their mates in a different point of the city… at last they would find out if Jorge's sacrifice was not in vain…

* * *

Now, after helping to secure several civilian evacuations and restoring radio communications: Both Spartans were about to regroup with the rest of the Noble team, noble six let his depression overcome him.

The gate of the pelican they was boarding was open, so the gray spartan could clearly see the New Alexandria city while overflying it… and it was a painful image…

Hundreds of skyscrapers were now empty of any living being and full of smoke, fire and rubbles instead, some of them were collapsing into the ground; a mix of pouring rain and clouds of black ashes covered the streets, saddening the ambient as furious thunders roared in the whole city.

The sky was dark, only illuminating when a covenant corvette fired against the survivors of the slaughter; The horizon was red: A blinding crimson red due to the alien super carrier crashed on the mountains kilometers away from the city.

It was hell on earth…

Noble six lost his sight on the distance as the pelican continued its course through the buildings, he sighed deeply inside his helmet: Not mattering how much they endeavored, everything seemed useless, despite all the lives they saved only that single day, devastation and death still razed with the city, The covenants were too powerful, even for the biggest UNSC army: The entire planet Reach…

Noble six started to think that he wouldn't make it… that maybe he wouldn't last long enough to see this war finished, and that idea began to break his spirit… but he wasn't afraid of dying: He was afraid of failing…

"And then my sister said 'The cold never bothered me anyway'! Ahahahaha-" The gray Spartan was dragged out from his thoughts by his mate's usual rant.

"You should've been there six! It was SOOO funny!" Anna barely said between her shouts of laughter, rubbing her belly with her hands, she was sitting in front of noble six at the other row of the pelican's seats.

"Stop it, Anna…" Noble six cut off her with a cold tone, not bothering to look at her "I'm not in the mood…"

The strawberry blonde kept silent at this and parted her sight from the gray Spartan, staring at the ground of the vehicle with a hurt expression on her face.

"S-sorry…" she broke the silence "I was just trying to cheer you up, I'm neither in the mood but… what's the point of being so mad and serious all the time? I mean, not like that's gonna' do us any good…"

Noble six was still glancing outside, ignoring Anna's comments…

"I miss him too, you know?"

With that the gray Spartan sighed deeply and shook his head to the sides, regretting of his attitude, he faced Anna once again, his golden visor met her turquoise blue eyes.

"Hey…" Noble six finally spoke and Anna attended curious "You mentioned before that you liked chocolate, right?"

"Like life itself!" Anna squealed happily in response.

"Well…" The gray Spartan moved his hand backwards to one container in his utility belt "I recovered this back at the city, I think it's still eatable…"

Anna's eyes widened when noble six pulled out a 'Wonka' chocolate bar from his belt, offering it to her; surprisingly the candy was still intact.

"Oh my… I-Is this for real? Like, like… F-f-f-for me?" She stuttered while covering her mouth with her both hands, intending to restrain the tears of joy building up within her, the gray Spartan nodded silently as an answer to her question.

"Yay! Thankyouthankyouthankyou!" Anna squealed again, giving small hops in her seat while she embraced the chocolate bar against her chest as if it were a baby.

Then the pelican they were boarding decelerated the flight and began to descend to the roof of one specific building.

"Come on, this is our stop" Noble six regained some composure and stood up from his seat, Anna nodded at him and imitated his gesture, not before picking up Jorge's helmet from the ground, both spartans were standing in front of the vehicle's opened gate.

Raising dust all over the place: The ship went down close enough to the platform beneath, Carter was there, waiting for his partners to show up; at last they came out from the pelican and Noble one welcomed the gray spartan, along with a happy strawberry blonde girl eating a chocolate bar, she had her lips covered with chocolate and her freckled cheeks inflated due to the chewing.

She also had Jorge's helmet…

"Your report will have to wait, Spartans" Carter said, placing himself between the two spartans and giving them a pat in the shoulder to both.

"We just restored all radio comms, the others are inside" The three Spartans walked towards the building, but suddenly Carter stopped, the gray Spartan and the strawberry blonde turned to him.

"Is good to have you two back" Noble one said.

"Sorry we came without him…" Noble six replied and Anna swallowed hardly her candy, then giving him a hurt look.

"…Let's make him proud…"

"We're sorry Carter…" Anna added "Want a bite?" She offered him a piece of chocolate in a friendly gesture

"I'm fine… thanks…" Noble one rejected the offer politely.

After that both men entered into the building, Anna stayed behind for a moment, glancing back at what remained of New Alexandria, she sighed deeply at the sad scene of destruction and walked away to gather with her partners, eating her last piece of chocolate on her way.

She arrived to the lobby: It was a huge hall with gray steel walls and a giant, broken window in the background that showed the entire city; loose balks and cut wires were hanging on the ceiling, in the floor rested a destroyed purple banshee.

Anna spotter her companions: Jun was sitting in a table at the huge window, watching the horizon with binoculars; Emile sat in the floor at the back with his knife on his hands; Noble six on the other hand laid his back against the wall, beside him was Kat, crouching in the ground and fighting with a small communication device to make it work; and finally there was Carter, resting in the aforementioned banshee.

Seeing the noble team so… splitted drained all happiness from her being, Anna looked down and began to walk deeper into the hall, she approached to Emile and sat at his side with a lost glare on the ground.

"Hey…" The black Spartan greeted her.

"H-hey…" She replied weakly with a tiny smile, she still was a little afraid of him.

"Look at this place" Jun began to talk "Used to be the crown jewel… not anymore…" he turned and glanced back at his partners "Glad to see you two made it…"

"It's a regular family reunion" Emile added.

Then the gray Spartan felt the need to raise his hand, still holding the dog-tags that Jorge gave to him as if to gather the gigantic Spartan in the conversation.

"Keep'em…" The black spartan said "He gave them to you… I'll honor him my own way" he completed while pointing at himself with his battle knife.

"But you won the lottery, isn't it?" Emile turned and said to Anna beside him, who was holding Jorge's helmet between her hands, staring deeply at its red visor.

"… H-he said… he was sorry…" Anna replied, feeling the upcoming wave of tears.

"The big man was sentimental!" Emile laughed.

"Jorge gave his life thinking he'd just save the planet…" Carter added "We all should be that lucky"

After that Noble one lost his sight on the distance, so he didn't noticed a strawberry blonde girl approaching until she was in front of him with a hurt look on her sapphire eyes.

"P-please…" Anna spoke timidly "Don't… don't say that again… It's too painful…"

"Spartan: Is important for you to keep focused" Carter replied.

"Focused!? On what!? On the fact that Jorge is dead! And none of you seem to care! Not even a little!" Anna was furious and disgusted.

"You need to understand, that war means sacrifice, even if it leads us to personal tragedy, our duty with mankind goes before everything else… am I being clear enough Spartan?"

"Don't call me 'Spartan'! I have a name! And so you DO, Carter!"

"For you I'm 'Commander'…"

"For me… you are just an unfeeling, killing machine! You're not so different from the monsters we fight…"

Both clenched their fists and gave each other a defiant glare during a long, deep silence; it was only a matter of time before one of them threw the first punch; Carter blew a cold breath and Anna pouted her lip as the tension filled the air.

"Sir…" Jun asked, intending to avoid a confrontation "Is true that Gauntlet, Red and Echo teams were assigned to civilian evac-ops?"

Carter began to walk away from the strawberry blonde, never parting his glare from her until he reached Jun at the window, Anna on the other hand placed her fingers in front of her eyes and then pointed them back at noble one in a 'I'm watching you' motion; this wasn't over…

"Those are senior-level communications" Carter resumed.

"I hear what I hear" Kat replied from the back "The point is: Why put Spartans on defensive deployments?"

"I need that link to SATCOM, Kat…"

"I'm trying! But this device has more shrapnel in it than transceivers… you didn't answer my question…"

"You want to know if we're losing?"

"We ARE losing! I wanna' know if we have lost…"

Carter glanced back at the window and didn't replied, then the discussion was replaced with quietness, both spartans returned to their own business due to the lack of answers.

"_We ARE LOSING!" _Those terrifying words echoed again inside Anna's head, her hopes about going back with her family began to vanish; depressed: she lowered her sight and moved from the destroyed banshee to the other side of the hall, joining with noble six.

"Hey…" Anna whispered while closing her eyes and resting her head on the gray spartan's chest, also tangling her fingers with his.

It wasn't a secret that Anna was fond to noble six, since he has been the only one who listened at her frequent babbling, but above all else: From the first moment she arrived to the noble team, it was him the one who supported her most of the times and forgave her mistakes without being so rude or cold.

And that was enough for Anna… she always sought comfort on him, and she always knew she would find it…

Beneath that helmet lied the enigma that noble six was, of course: He responded to Anna's motions and feelings, tightening slightly the grab on her hand, but no one could be sure of which were the gray spartan's thoughts or emotions about anything since he didn't spoke more than the necessary.

The O.N.I. said that was one of his most valuable qualities… but for Anna: That 'conceal, don't feel' attitude wasn't healthy, her best friend was still a mystery for her…

Suddenly Kat's communication device began to transmit something: just white noise for the moment… but it was something that captured everyone's attention.

"-in the south west quadrant of the city, over?" The received transmission on the radio finally cleared.

"Colonel Holland? Hailing us, what's he doing on an open channel?" Kat pointed.

"Let's hear it" Carted said.

"Noble one! If you are receiving, link with this channel immediately!"

"How long for a secure channel?" Noble one asked.

"I can't guarantee secure anymore" the female Spartan replied.

"Could the covenant trace us?"

"I could"

"Noble leader: This is a priority one hail, if you are receiving, acknowledge immediately!" Colonel Holland was persistent.

"Keep it brief" Kat raised in the air the small communication device to Carter.

"Carter here… yes sir…" He picked the device and answered the call.

"We've got movement!" Jun said, he was still watching at the window "Multiple covenant vehicles withdrawing from the area! And they're in a hurry…"

"How often do you see the covenant retreat for no reason?" Emile questioned from the back, all the spartans in that room entered into an alert state.

"Radiation flare!" Kat called "Forty million roentgens!" she checked another device in her hands.

"I lost Holland, what's going on?" Carter returned to the current situation.

"Atomic radiation blocking the signals! Ninety million roentgens now!"

"Source?"

"Airborne, close"

"How close?"

(BOOOM!) (CRASH!) (THOM!)

"THAT CLOSE!" Suddenly one blinding light illuminated the entire city for scarce two seconds, followed by a colossal explosion near to building where the noble team was as an air blast fiercely burst through the window and send all the Spartans in that room to the ground.

The sky turned into a deep red as the floor became unstable, losing the balance and tilting to be a ramp now: A ramp that went down to the broken window and so, to a nine hundred meters fall outside the skyscraper.

"AGH!" Anna fell to the ground, the violent breeze stunned her deeply, she struggled to stand up and refocus her senses anew but her body lacked of strength, fortunately noble six was there for her, helping her to rise again, then both walked to help Kat beside them, who was also crawling away from the broken window.

All the spartans stood up from the ground and ran to the elevators at the back of the hall, the gates opened and the noble team entered on them, disposing to descend to a lower floor of the skyscraper.

"First glassing?" Kat asked while putting her light blue helmet on and closing the door behind them, she, noble six and Anna shared one elevator "Mine too…"

"Heh! Hey…" Anna said to six breathless "Remember me to freak out whenever I hear the word 'rodentgentz', heh…" How does she manage to be so cheerful ALL the time?

"Are you still afraid of heights?" The gray Spartan asked, ignoring Anna's 'joke'.

"Yeah but I'm more afraid of explosions and bad guys… and Emile!" she added innocently with a bright smile, Kat chuckled at this.

"Don't worry, I'm on it…" Kat spoke again "Our best option is a bunker on sub-level two… we got orders from Holland, sir?"

"We're being redeployed to sword base" Carter answered from the other elevator.

"Sword!? The covenant own it now!" Jun exclaimed.

"Which is why Holland wants us to destroy the base, to keep Halsey's excavation data from falling into enemy hands"

"If it hasn't already!" Jun, Carter and Emile arrived to the main floor first, they quickly made their ways out of the elevators, leading to the other side of the hall: It was dark, full of rubbles and had a huge aperture on the ceiling from where the moonlight entered.

"Maybe, but according to Holland: The covenant is still haunting for something!" The three of them reached and opened door at the back.

"D-don't so fast! I'm a little dizzy here!" Anna yelled from the back; she, noble six and Kat got to the first floor, running towards their mates at the other side.

"Where does he get off calling a demolition op as priority on-"

(BANG!)

"Oh no… no no NO NO NO!"

Anna saw Kat's lifeless body fell to the ground like a ragdoll when a single plasma shot overpassed her helmet and came out from her platinum visor; Noble six caught the corpse before it touched the land.

"K-k-Kat-t-t?" Anna's dizziness vanished quickly, she kneeled completely broken as the tears began to appear in her eyes, she froze as a statue… she has lost another partner, another friend… right in front of her face…

The gray Spartan pulled out a magnum from Kat's thigh and fired to a phantom dropship above the aperture in the roof, his mates imitated his gesture and opened fire against the ship with their assault rifles.

Knowing that its job was done: The phantom flawlessly left the scene, not being damaged by the spartan's bullets.

"C'mon! C'mon! Get in!" Noble six threw away the gun once the ammunition clip got empty and started to drag Kat's body to the door in the back.

Anna was still there, motionless in her knees, crying in silence with her jaw half-dropping, refusing to believe what just happened in front of her eyes.

"Let's go! Come on!" Jun ran towards the broken strawberry blonde, helping her to stand up by wrapping her arm around his neck and walking back to the bunker at the other side.

The green Spartan had to walk for both since Anna wasn't moving or even reacting to any external stimulus, her body was like a dummy, she was too heavy for Jun, despite the fact that Anna was the smallest of everyone in the noble team, but now she carried the weight of sadness and failure.

The gate finally shut with all the Spartans and some civilians behind them, everything turned into black, nothing was visible and an intense silence almost filled the entire atmosphere, only being possible to hear the people's laments:

"It's going to be alright, we're safe here, stay calm…"

"I don't want to die… please let me live…"

"Shhhh… I'm here… It's ok…"

* * *

The noble team came out from one huge aperture in the ground towards the surface: 'New Alexandria' city was now a burning graveyard, the streets were unrecognizable due to the flames and the rubbles filling them.

A giant smug-cloud made almost impossible seeing the horizon and anything above the buildings, the sky was red and the once proud skyscrapers decorating the city were now only trails of destruction; not a single soul could be seen on this infernal scenery.

Everyone came out from the shadows: Carter was carrying Kat's corpse in a bridal style, noble six was doing the same for Anna, who was empty of any sign of emotions… she was dead on the inside…

Jun took the lead, lighting up a blue flare and dropping it to the ground, from where it emanated a big, blue smoke cloud, hoping that it would be seen by any evacuation ship, so they could finally end this nightmarish chapter in Reach's story…

* * *

**-Covenant Corvette: **Its one of the most common support ships in the Covenant's fleet, although is one of the weaker ships compared to other ships in the Covenant fleet, so it's only dedicated to rapid insertion of troops and reconnaissance tasks, always being escorted by Banshees and Seraphs, also possesses an hangar, which can carry up plenty of vehicles.

**-Covenant Super Carrier: **The CSO-class supercarrier is an extremely powerful, heavy warship classification and the largest class within the Covenant Navy. The Covenant supercarriers are an even match for fleets of ships, capable of obliterating even Assault Carriers and certainly any human vessels, being capable of carrying and deploying entire armies of ground troops and materiel, along with innumerable ground vehicles, weaponry, and towering cloaking spires capable of hiding entire armies from sight, radar, and sensory arrays.

**-Savannah Frigate: **The UNSC Savannah was a Paris-class heavy frigate in service with the UNSC Navy during the Human-Covenant war. The Savannah participated in the Fall of Reach in Fall 2552, being escorted by a Pelican and multiple Sabre fighters to capture a Covenant corvette. The Savannah was destroyed during this engagement, due to not being able to fire upon the Corvette directly.

**-Auntie DOT:** (Also simply known as "Dot") It was a UNSC Artificial Intelligence construct at the time of the Fall of Reach. She monitored and assisted Noble Team during the battle and kept the team's members connected while they were embarking on separate missions. She observed the team through security cameras and satellites over Reach.

**-Colonel Urban Holland: **Also known as "Noble Actual", was a human field grade officer of the UNSC Army who served during the Human-Covenant war. He had operational control of Noble Team during the Fall of Reach.

**-Covenant Banshee: **The Type-26 Ground Support Aircraft, more commonly identified as "The Banshee", is an atmospheric, versatile, personal aerial assault craft in the Covenant's vehicular arsenal that is typically used for reconnaissance, ground support, and ground attack missions. In most designs, the cowling of the craft is purple in color and acts as an outer 'shell'. It is equipped with two wings which terminate in a propulsion jet and an anti-gravity pod, leaving behind a signature vaporous exhaust trail while flying.

**-SATCOM: **Satellite Communications.

**-Roentgen: **(Unit) (R, also röntgen) is a legacy unit of measurement for the exposure of X-rays and gamma rays up. It is named by the German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen, who discovered X-rays. Originating in 1908.

**-Glassing: **The term "glassing", also known as plasma bombardment, is used to refer to the act by which Covenant ships bombard a planet from orbit using heavy plasma weaponry.


	5. The Fall Of Reach (Part III)

We're getting closer to the end, I got a little experimental with this chapter, that's mainly the reason why it is too long for a mission, but still I liked the results, I hope you too like it as well; besides: For those who already knows what's next of this chapter will agree with me in the fact that "The Pillar of Autumn" deserves its own entrance, I just ask you to not spoil anything in the reviews for those who haven't played Halo: Reach.

Anna in the Halo Universe is receiving a wonderful feedback, and I wanna thank you all for it; the first stage in the original Halo franchise is about to end, but the real shit is only beginning. I will try to update the Reach's final chapter before September, until then enjoy this closer look to "The Package", farewell and may the divines smile at you all.

* * *

**Spartan Anna – 151**

**Episode V: The Fall Of Reach (Part III)**

* * *

**The Package**

**August 29, 2552, 2816 Hours**

**Sword Base**

Carter kept his finger on the trigger, firing his assault rifle at the golden-armored elite in front of him, but the blue energy shields surrounding completely the beast's body resisted under the bullet rain without any problems.

(FWHOM!) (TSSSKK!)

In one quick movement: The sangheili chopped in half Carter's gun with a slice of its energy sword, leaving it useless.

Noble one stepped back, dropping the destroyed rifle and then lunging against the alien by throwing himself into its torso, ripping away the energy sword from its hand, however: The elite's strength overpassed Carter's and so with minimum effort stood still before the spartan's jostling, who was oblivious at this.

"GARRHH!" Carter groaned in pain when the elite joined its fists together above its head, making them fall abrupt and mightily on the Spartan's back, sending him to the black steel ground exhausted and injured.

(THUM!) The sangheili tried to crush noble one's helmet in a deadly stomp that echoed all over the place, in the last moment Carter evaded the beast's foot by spinning his body in the floor, then he rolled backwards over his column away from the alien.

"ARRGH!" Without thinking it too much: Carter pulled out from his thigh a magnum, pointing it to the alien in front of him, but just before he pressed the trigger, the elite strongly gave him an uppercut right in the chin, taking off his helmet and sending it a few meters away from the scene, along with his gun due to the might of the hit.

Stunned and defeated: Noble one fell to the ground again, staring hopelessly at the ice stalactites on the roof with a blurred vision, then he looked around to spot his partners dealing with their own problems, he spat blood as he made an effort to stand up anew, unfortunately his body wasn't responding.

He was alone and it seemed that the time has come to him.

The elite approached to Carter, grabbing him tight by the neck and raising him on the air with just one hand in a victorious motion, it was in that moment when the spartan, with his last breath pulled out a combat knife from its sheath attached to his chest, intending to cut the sangheili's hand to free himself of the grab… unfortunately it didn't work…

"URGH!" Carter groaned again, spitting more blood when the elite fiercely punched him in the stomach just a second before he could make a cut on the beast's hand.

The knife fell to the ground, far from the spartan; The elite shook its free arm, which was holding something, then from thin air a plasma beam appeared in the form of an energy sword being pointed to the defenseless soldier.

Noble one gave a final glance to his executioner: This elite in particular also had a golden armor, but it was smaller than the other sangheili's he has seen before, less ornate; the beast had orange eyes with black cranny pupils and two blue lights emanating from each of its forearms.

The alien slowly moved backwards its arm, gaining strength to overpass the spartan's torso with the energy sword, Carter clenched his teeth, preparing for death and resting in the solace of dying in the battlefield by the hand of a worthy opponent…

(SMACK!)

One grenade appeared from nowhere, flying in direction to the golden-armored elite, violently landing on its head and bouncing on it, the beast loss the balance and fell to the ground, releasing Carter from the grab, who wearily stepped back from the scene in the quickest way he was able to.

(BOOM!) The grenade exploded in the air, away from them; stunned in the ground: The sangheili shook his head to the sides, recovering from the hit, then the beast posed its glare on the energy sword just a few centimeters out of its reach.

"HEY YOU! Umm… SILLY FACE!" The elite turned to the call "PICK SOMEONE OF YOUR OWN SIZE!"

There it was Anna, standing a few steps away with a serious and defiant glare on her turquoise blue eyes, wielding a grenade launcher that emanated smoke from the barrel, she stared deeply at the fallen sangheili and then to her mate, making sure that he was okay.

The beast began to crawl in direction to the energy sword in the floor, seeking to finish what it started; The strawberry blonde Spartan quickly reacted at this, pressing her finger anew on the trigger of the weapon she was holding… but the weapon never fired.

"What's the matter with you!? SHOOT!" Anguished: Anna looked down at the grenade launcher between her hands, shaking it desperately and pressing its trigger several times to fire another projectile, but instead the gun made useless clicks everytime it was actuated.

Anna bit her lip nervously, despair took the best of her; she looked around and explored her options, but to her misfortune the hurry of the situation blocked her mind.

Was in that moment when she saw the elite dangerously close to its sword, nearly touching the weapon with its long, pointy fingers, drawing a gasp from the female Spartan, the strawberry blonde realized that it was now or never.

(FWHOOSH!)

In what some would call clever, others stupid: Anna, with all the strength on her arms, threw the unloaded grenade launcher against the sangheili in the floor, just before he could recover the energy sword.

(THUM!) The now useless weapon crashed against the elite's helmet, stunning the aforementioned beast anew and creating a deafening hollow sound that echoed inside all over the ice cave they were in.

Anna took advantage of the distraction and ran the fastest she could towards the fallen sangheili, who didn't even noticed her approaching;

Arriving to that spot, she kicked away the sword, making sure that the alien would be unarmed by now and so: easier to be dealt with.

The golden-armored elite raised from the floor, angry for what could be seen, the strawberry blonde retraced over her steps, never losing the composure, even when she was terrified on the inside.

"Go on! I'm not afraid of you…" Anna taunted the elite with her clenched fists in front of her face, part of her fighting stance; she glared up defiant, her sapphire eyes met the black cranny pupils of the beast, not being intimidated by the fact that the elite was, at least one meter taller than her.

(SMACK!) The strawberry blonde reacted first, lunging against the sangheili and mightily throwing her fist into the beast's stomach, she punched it with all the strength left within her body.

Unfortunately… the elite remained unfazed at the hit; Anna looked up slowly and giggled awkwardly.

"UGH!" The sangheili fiercely elbowed Anna right in the jaw, sending her to the ground, the thundering noise of her skull crashing with the floor traveled through the entire place; The golden armored elite started to walk towards the fallen strawberry blonde.

Facing the ground, Anna spat blood when she heard the beast's steps getting closer to her…

Was in that moment when Anna closed tightly her eyes and contracted her body, making a 'ball' of her body as if she were trying to protect herself from something.

Confused by the girl: The elite tilted its head to the side… then its sight received a light, a blue light glowing beneath itself, the beast glared down to see a blinding beam coming out from its torso, from where the female Spartan punched it…

The light was only becoming brighter and brighter, then the sangheili finally understood…

It was a plasma grenade attached to its body.

(KA-BOOM!)

A wild air burst passed above Anna, spreading blue dust all over the place, slowly she turned to sit in the floor, moving her hand in front of her face to disperse the dust with a proud smirk on her lips, although being a bit stunned by the explosion.

But suddenly she frowned when the blue dust-cloud began to disappear.

"HEY! THAT'S NOT FAIR!" Anna shouted when she saw the golden-armored elite kneeling in the ground, surrounded completely by a white energy shield that emanated more energy pulses.

The sangheili used an armor lock.

(FHOOM!)

The elite got up from the floor with the sword in hand, releasing a strange energy blast when it did, Anna was reached by such blast, bemusing her and draining the energy reserves on her armor.

With nothing else to do: Anna began to fall back as the sangheili walked straight to her, victim of fear: She gulped hardly with an afraid look on her sapphire eyes, knowing that this was it…

She was weakened and defenseless at the beast's mercy.

"Well done Spartans…" One feminine voice sounded on the communicators "I'm opening the laboratory doors"

(THUM!) By surprise Carter tackled the golden-armored elite in front of Anna, sending him far away from them, then he glanced at the strawberry blonde, he had his helmet back.

"The door's open!" Carter said to her "Get to the lab!"

Anna nodded and turned on her heel, running to one huge steel gate at the back that, indeed was opening for the noble team; Emile, Jun and noble six were already behind it.

She arrived to the door along with Carter, shutting again slowly; At the other side she could see the golden-armored elite standing in front of the gate, the Spartans were pointing their assault rifles to the sangheili, making sure that it wouldn't try to enter.

Before the door closed completely: Anna stuck out her tongue and pulled down her lower eyelid with her finger in a sneer to the elite, who clearly saw the gesture through the door's gap.

(THUUM!) The gate finally shut and the golden-armored elite furiously slammed its fist against it.

"Supreme Commander!" Three more sangheilis in blue armor approached to the door.

"Those human scums locked themselves inside…" One of them said, they learned our language quickly "We'll never break through this!"

"There's no need to…" The elite in golden armor replied calmly.

"How do we proceed then?"

"Get back to the ships! They won't hide forever…"

* * *

According to Holland's orders: Just after being extracted from New Alexandria, what remained of the noble team was translated back to Sword Base with the objective of destroying it before the covenant could recover any sort of intel.

In other words: The spartans were there to finish the covenant's job for them.

Like Jun said: Sword base was already enemy territory that the aliens were intended to defend at any cost.

Submerged in smoke, fire, corpses and a crimson sky: The noble team had a hard time getting through the covenant forces and the trails of destruction of what once was domain of the O.N.I.

Now inside the base, precisely where the spartans were committed to be, they found themselves cornered in a no-way-out room, confused by the perplexing coordinates provided to them.

Was in that moment when the noble team discovered a secret passageway that leads underground.

It resulted to be an undercover operation directed by the O.N.I, overriding Holland's current commands without his permission or knowledge in order to secure the translation of Halsey's excavation data to a safer place.

Carter, Jun, Emile, Noble six and Anna were taken by Dr. Halsey to a gigantic ice cave under the foundations of the sword base, on their way down in the elevator they saw a huge metal structure occupying a considerable space of the rock formation.

An ancient alien artifact neither human, nor covenant in origin, advanced beyond our comprehension: The whole focus of Halsey's investigation.

Dr. Halsey was inside a laboratory at the back of the cave, decrypting the data of the alien structure, and the noble team was supposed to defend the position from the covenant troops until the decrypting process was completed.

At last Halsey opened the gate for the noble team, revealing a dark, deep passageway to which the spartans entered, saving their weapons and walking deeper into the mysterious corridor, taking the only chance to relax that they have had in a long time.

Anna sighed in both fatigue and relief, wiping some dust from her red armor, then she smiled again as she usually does and began to walk to gather with her mates, irradiating happiness in her steps.

"Hey…" Carter approached to the strawberry blonde and spoke, walking beside her "Thanks for picking me up back there"

"No problem CartereeerrrhmmmMander! I-I mean 'Commander'!" Anna replied nervously, she still recalled that awkward encounter both had back at New Alexandria.

"Feel free to call me 'Carter'…" Noble one said to her, Anna opened her mouth to answer but she hesitated, she just gave him a shy smirk instead, saying nothing in response.

After that Carter just nodded and hastened his step to catch up with Jun and Emile in the front, leaving behind the strawberry blonde.

"Yay!" Anna squealed happily while she jumped in the air when Carter got far enough from her, noble six arrived to the scene, intending to find of what was the disorder about.

"Carter doesn't hate me anymore!" Anna spoke in her cheerful characteristic tone "HIGH FIVE!" She raised her palm in the air to noble six with her lips twitched into a huge smile.

The gray Spartan slowly moved upwards his hand, barely making contact with Anna's, who giggled silently at this and threw herself against her mate, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"He never hated you" Noble six replied as the strawberry blonde released him from the embrace "Believe: It's impossible to hate you…"

"Y-you… you really mean t-that?" Anna stuttered while she blushed in a deep red and rubbed the back of her neck, obviously nervous.

"I mean it…"

"Oh you're such a flatterer sometimes!" Anna joked, hitting slightly noble six in the shoulder as a friendly gesture.

"Ow…" The gray spartan muttered under his helmet when the strawberry blonde punched him in the arm.

"Oh shit! Sorry, heh heh…" Anna quickly apologized with her fingers in front of her lips, because being clumsy and strong wasn't a good combination.

"Nice job back there by the way…" Noble six replied when he felt the ache disappear, after that both Spartans kept silent and walked faster to catch up with their companions.

* * *

At the end of the passageway the noble team saw a shining blue light that became even brighter the more they got closer to it; this strange light took shape when they went out from the dark corridor and ventured inside Dr. Halsey's laboratory.

A big circular light hanged from the roof at the center of the room, the walls were actually windows that showed an enormous light sphere outside the laboratory, surrounded by three gigantic metal structures protecting it and numerous small orange holograms floating around it.

The noble team stood up at the Laboratory's gate, wandering with their sights over the complex installations; the Spartans were highly impressed, but Anna was the most surprised about the image of technology.

"…Wooow…" Her sapphire eyes were opened wide, her mouth half opened and her lips forming a light smirk, the strawberry blonde slowly posed her gaze on every inch of the lab.

For Anna was like discovering that magic was real.

"What is this stuff?" Emile asked, clearly perplexed.

"Knowledge…" Dr. Halsey replied serene from the back of the room, she was working with some computer terminals "The legacy of an ancient civilization…"

The doctor turned completely to face the spartans, focusing her attention on a certain member of the noble team: That strawberry blonde girl in red armor with turquoise blue eyes, two braided pigtails resting on her shoulders and pale skin slightly covered by freckles.

The others noticed this and also stared at Anna, who was touched for some reason, but they couldn't figure out which one was: The scene of the two women in a silent mutual gaze only confused them even more.

"H-h-Hi doc-c…" Anna barely said with a tiny smile and her hands in front of her chest, her eyes grew watery at the image of the doctor.

Since she was kidnapped from her home: Halsey has been for Anna the closest thing she had to a family, to a mother more specifically, during her hard military training, she was the only person that actually cared about her.

And seeing that she was still alive, even when the casualty reports (That Anna gets informed by Carter since she never reads them by herself) had listed her as deceased: Was something that reminded to Anna that, in the end: There's always something worth fighting for… an ideal on which she based her whole life.

Even sometimes through her childhood: Anna made mistakes and called Halsey 'mom'…

Halsey on the other hand only sighed in relief and smirked to the strawberry blonde: Since the selection process for the Spartan-II Project, the doctor got fond to the recruits, to the children that were being prepared to be humanity's last hope… among those… there were a small group of kids that Halsey cared most, being Anna one of them.

She wanted to run and hug Anna… but Halsey was a master of disguise: She was accustomed to wear a mask and hide her feelings, even from herself because, well… she was a professional after all.

"Hello Anna…" The doctor answered with a calm voice and a soft smile "I'm glad to see you're still in one piece… I only wish I could say the rest about the noble team…"

"We all do ma'am…" Carter intruded on the conversation.

"Well: It may please you to know that…" The doctor continued "Thanks to noble two and the data module she recovered back at Visegrad, I was able to unlock the secrets of this excavation…"

Anna and noble six stared at each other, remembering the moment when the gray Spartan found a mysterious chip in a corpse that traumatized Anna and Kat snatched from him.

The memory was still fresh on Anna's mind, she got mad at Kat that time… bun now she had it as an enjoyable anecdote of her deceased partner…

"The greatest mankind's discovery in recent years, on the level of the conical bullet in the nineteenth century, or faster-than-light travel in the twenty-third…" The doctor kept talking and the strawberry blonde set her attention in the current conversation.

"And… mankind's best chance to survival…"

"Not sure I understand…" Carter said when Halsey finished talking.

The doctor turned her back again at the Spartans, giving a deep breath before speaking anew, never stopping working on the computers.

"Mankind is out-matched… when Reach falls, and it will fall: Our annihilation is all but certain… unless we can make from this artifact a defense against the covenant, a game-changer…"

"And what if we can't?" Noble one questioned the doctor.

"'And what if we can't?'" Halsey replied "And apt question if there were somewhere else to place our hope… there's not…"

The doctor approached to one artifact where it could be seen the purple hologram of a woman with short hair inside a sphere.

"This A.I. is the custodian of this data, and she has chosen you as her couriers"

"Chosen? By an A.I.?" Emile asked, leaning closer to Anna beside him.

"I know! I think it's pretty weird too…" She replied in a whisper.

"By this A.I., yes" Halsey resumed "You are to take her to the UNSC ship-breaking yard in Aszod, there you'll find a Halcyon-class cruiser waiting to get her off-planet"

"Psst!" The strawberry blonde called the black Spartan again "F-f-for the record… What A-I means?" Emile groaned frustrated in response, moving his head to the sides in sign of disappointment, to which Anna answered shrugging with a goofy smile.

Halsey pressed a button in a keyboard of the artifact in front of her, when she did the woman's hologram quickly vanished, then she grabbed a steel handle protruding from it and, with moderate effort pulled out a crystal cylinder, a capsule with a blue light in the center.

The doctor, with the curious object in her hands began to walk towards the noble team, passing through Jun, Emile, Carter and Noble six, finally standing before Anna, who had a confused expression in her face.

"Anna… My dear snowflake…" Halsey used Anna's nickname from her childhood, making reference to her homeland: Arendalle "Take it… she has made her choice…" she offered the capsule to the strawberry blonde.

"Wait, what? Who? Me?" Perplexed: Anna pointed at herself and looked around her, then turning to Halsey and her mates, having difficulties to believe what she just heard.

"I-I-I'm sorry I can't!" She began to babble like an idiot like she always did when she got nervous "I-I mean I can, actually, bu-bu-but I just don't want to, I-I-I MEAN, I want to! But I-I just think that I shouldn't be-because… well… I-I… Why you don't pick six?! He's better with this kind of things than I because-"

"Anna… take it…" Halsey interrupted Anna calmly, laughing slightly of her mumbling.

"I-I-I'm sorry… I-I-I just… I can't…"

"Why not?"

"You don't understand!" Anna cried, in her sapphire eyes began to appear small signals of tears "Jorge! Kat! They died because of me! If this really is as important as you say… then I-I-I… I can't screw it!"

"You won't fail Anna…"

"I WILL!" The tears began to pour down from the strawberry blonde's eyes "I always do… p-p-please don't make me…"

Halsey released one of her hands from the capsule, reaching for Anna's cheek and gently wiping the trail of tears from it with her fingertips.

"Anna…" The doctor spoke softly "This A.I. sees the potential I see in you… I don't know why you can't see it but I assure you: You can do far more than you think"

Anna remained still with her jaw half-dropping, placing her hand on Halsey's, which was yet on her cheek.

"Remember: Never be afraid, you're valuable, special… don't let anyone tell you the opposite…"

The strawberry blonde gasped quietly when she heard those words again, amazed by that sentence, she barely noticed a hand on her shoulder, she turned to see her partner: Noble six supporting her, like every time he did when she needed it.

"Take it Anna…" The gray Spartan said "We trust in you…" He and the other Spartans gave her a nod of approval simultaneously.

With that Anna lashed against Halsey, wrapping her arms around her neck and burying her nose into her shoulder in a strong, comforting embrace; the doctor returned the hug lightly.

"T-t-th-thank you…" Anna whispered, her eyes were filled with tears of joy "…Mom …"

"No… thanks to you Anna…" Halsey replied and then the two women pulled out from the embrace, the strawberry blonde now willing to take the capsule.

Anna placed her hands in both ends of the object, making sure to hold it firmly.

"Do you have it?" Halsey asked hopefully.

"Yes…" The strawberry blonde answered.

"Say the words, please…"

"The words plea-I-I MEAN I HAVE IT!"

The doctor chuckled and finally let go the capsule in trust, allowing Anna to carry it.

"Heh! W-w-wow! I-It's kinda heavy…" The strawberry blonde said, holding the capsule by herself now, then she began to walk slow and carefully to the lab's gate from where the Spartans entered, never parting her sight from the blue light inside the crystal.

(THUM!) "Wo-wo-Whoah!" Distracted by the object: Anna forgot to look where she walked, tripping with a loose cable on the floor, she started to lose the balance, nearly dropping the capsule.

Everyone in that room gasped in terror and gave a small hop to Anna's mortal clumsiness sample, almost destroying the purpose of their mission.

"I-IT'S OK! IT'S OK! Don't worry, everything's okay…" Anna said relieved, recovering her equilibrium and raising the capsule in the air for the others to see that there was no damage.

The Spartans and the doctor face-palmed at the same time, Anna just shrugged and smiled innocently in reaction to this.

* * *

At early hours in the morning: The noble team emerged from the darkness of a ship's hangar at the top of a mountain, the sunlight began to pose over two pelicans in the landing platform just a few meters ahead.

"Doctor Halsey" Carter spoke when everyone arrived to the ships outdoors "Noble Three will escort you to Castle base"

"I require no escort Commander" Halsey replied politely.

"Jun: Make sure nothing falls into enemy hands"

"I'll do what's necessary sir…" Jun answered to noble one "Good luck…"

"You too rifleman…" With that Carter and Jun splitted and started to walk in opposite directions, leading to a different pelican each one of them.

"JUN! WAIT!" Noble three froze in his step and turned to the call of his name, staring at a strawberry blonde girl running towards him.

Anna threw herself against Jun as soon as she arrived to his spot, wrapping her arms around his neck while she closed her eyes; the green Spartan was thunderstruck, not knowing how to react at first instance, but then he began to react and return the embrace to the girl.

"P-please… be careful…" The strawberry blonde whispered softly, tightening slightly the hug.

"The same goes for you, kid…" Jun replied, both pulling out from the embrace; small traces of tears began to appear on Anna's sapphire eyes.

Anna stood on her tip-toes, intending to look beyond the shoulder of the taller Spartan in front of her, she hoped to see Halsey again before they had to part ways; fortunately Jun noticed Anna's intentions and stepped aside.

"BYE DOC!" Anna yelled enthusiastically, waving her arm in the air, saying goodbye to the doctor at the pelican "I'LL WRITE YOU WHEN THIS IS OVER!"

"Why you don't write me as soon as you can instead!?" Halsey yelled in response as she slightly moved her hand upwards to say farewell, knowing that this war was still very far from being finished, contrary to what Anna might have thought optimistically.

"Good luck Anna…" Halsey whispered to herself, for Anna only smirked in trust, not wanting to make a drama from their parting.

The strawberry blonde smiled and waved her arm again, faster and more enthusiastically this time, letting her emotions overcome her like a cheerleader.

"Jun!" Anna spoke to Jun anew "I want you to promise me that you will keep her safe" She said with a serious expression in her face and pointing with her finger at the green Spartan, intending to look with authority… Noble three laughed silently inside his helmet at her involuntary cuteness…

"I promise it" Jun answered, giving her a small nod.

"Pinky finger promise?"

"What?" Anna raised her hand to Jun, stretching her pinky over the other fingers, inquiring childishly for him to imitate her gesture.

"Anna, I already said I promise it…"

"It doesn't count if it isn't with pinky finger! Please?" Anna begged again, pouting her bottom lip.

Jun groaned in frustration, defeated by the girl's playful manners: The green Spartan released his hand from the sniper rifle he was holding and moved it upwards, tangling his pinky finger with Anna's.

"Say with me!" Anna said with a huge smirk "I - promise - it!" both Spartans repeated at the same time, Anna with her cheerful characteristic tone… and Jun disappointed of himself.

They separated their hands and stared at each other for a few seconds.

Finally the strawberry blonde started to react, raising her hand up to her forehead to make a military salute, never stopping smiling, despite the fact that her eyes became watery.

"Seeya' around kid…" Jun nodded and said serenely, then he began to walk away from the strawberry blonde Spartan, leading to his pelican.

"Seeya' around…" Anna whispered to herself, watching the green spartan getting away as she slowly approached to her own pelican with the rest of the noble team.

"Are we ready to move, Spartan?" Carter questioned her a bit angry when she gathered with him, Noble six and Emile "We still have a mission to complete…"

"What? Umm… yeah…" The strawberry blonde answered a little distracted "Good to go, Captain!"

After that Noble one walked to the pelican, entering into the opened gate at the ship's bottom; he got deeper into it until he reached the pilot's cabin in the front.

"I need a heading, DOT" Carter spoke to Auntie-DOT as he took a seat and initiated the ignition's commands of the pelican.

"At three kilometers north" The A.I. replied "Turn right heading zero-five-zero coordinates"

"Which leads to? …"

"The ship-breaking yard in Aszod, the only off-planet extraction point on this continent; an armada of covenant cruisers is hastening to the site as well"

The pelican's motors began to throw fire, spreading mightily the dust all over the landing platform; Anna, Noble six and Emile boarded the ship as soon as it started to get off from the ground.

"Wouldn't be a Noble mission if it were easy!" Carter added motivated.

Inside the pelican: Anna and Noble six stood in front of the vehicle's opened gate; Emile on the other hand sat dangerously close to the floor's edge of the ship, one of his legs was hanging in the air as the pelican flew; the three of them staring at the mountains covered in snow and Jun's pelican flying in another direction.

"E-E-Emile?" Anna stuttered, questioning her partner, the black Spartan turned to her "W-why don't you get inside? You could like, fall or something…" her legs were trembling a little due to her own phobia to heights.

"Nah, I like the view…" Emile replied, completely unfazed at the heights.

"Ok, something's really wrong with that guy!" The strawberry blonde whispered, leaning closer to the gray Spartan beside her.

"Is just the way he is…" Noble six said to Anna "What about you?"

"Me?" She asked confused "What do you mean?"

"On the laboratory… and now with Jun, you're gonna' be ok?"

"Oh! That… I… I just needed to say 'goodbye'… I didn't had the chance with Kat, you know?" Anna's gaze fell to the ground with a hurt expression on her face.

"You know is not your fault what happened to her and Jorge, right?"

The strawberry blonde kept silent for a moment before speaking again.

"You remember when I got dizzy at the elevator?" She continued "And you both waited for me? If I hadn't took so long… she… she might be still with us, you know?"

"Well…" The gray Spartan thought in another tactic to make Anna feel better, knowing that she wouldn't give up on her self-blame "Now you have the chance to do the things right…"

"Wait, what? Ah! You mean this!" Smiling: Anna moved her hands backwards, reaching for the A.I.'s capsule that Halsey gave to her and she carried attached to her lower back, showing the device to her mate, Noble six nodded in response to this.

(THOOOM!)

"What the-" The three Spartans got distracted by the sound of an explosion in the distance, they posed their looks on a huge ice extension among the mountains.

(BOOOOM!) An even bigger explosion illuminated under this ice extension, inflating it like a globe and fragmenting it in a thousand pieces that fell to become a grand canyon now, full of smoke.

"It's a shame, I liked that place…" Anna referred to the laboratory that was just demolished in front of her eyes, Noble six simply stared at her like throwing her a 'you can't be serious' glare through the golden visor of his helmet.

With that the noble team remained in silence during their way to The Pillar of Autumn, knowing that they were closer to the end, but not certain about how things were turn going to be…

* * *

**-M319 Individual Grenade Launcher: **More formally known as the "Individual Grenade Launcher, Caliber 40mm, M319", is a single-shot, break-action explosives launcher used by the United Nations Space Command in the Human-Covenant war during the Fall of Reach.

**-Plasma Grenade: **The "Type-1 Antipersonnel Grenade" is a dangerous hand thrown weapon utilized by Covenant forces, it emits a bright blue light and gaseous plasma and contains some type of sophisticated internal mechanism that allows it to distinguish between targets and the local environment; it will stick to a soldier or vehicle, but not to a tree or wall, Once something has been stuck with a plasma grenade, there is essentially no way to remove it.

**-Armor Lock: **The Armor Lock is an external energy shield amplifier, this device can temporarily amplify a SPARTAN's energy shielding into near-invincibility levels, although when the shield is active, the user is completely immobilized. After a five-second period, the device deactivates and an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) is released from the armor. The Covenant also possesses a form of this technology, but the means through which it functions is unknown.

**-Halcyon-Class Cruiser: **(Pronounced 'hal-see-on') was a United Nations Space Command cruiser starship classification. Their service lives were short due to a unique hull design that was costly both to construct and to maintain, lack of speed, poor armament, and concerns about their tactical viability**.**

**-The Pillar of Autumn: **The UNSC Pillar of Autumn was a Halcyon-class light cruiser in the UNSC Navy. It was informally referred to as the "Autumn".


	6. The Finale Of Reach

I must stop doing promises I'm not able to complete: I know this chapter was intended to be uploaded a long time ago, but lots of things happened and I wasn't able to arrange this story properly (like destiny's launch!), so I took my time to deliver you the MOST FUCKIN' LONGEST CHAPTER EVAR! (Until now) to close with a flourish the Reach's story in the Halo universe, with the participation of Anna of course .

The real war is about to begin: Will Anna be prepared for it? How her presence will change the history of the games we love? Why am I asking you these questions? The answers to these and many other unnecessary questions are below, enjoy the slaughter!

_*Psst! Will write for reviews :3_

*Psst! (2) The flashback segments were commissioned by Aztec13: A true follower of Spartan Anna, hope you like it, pal! You rock!

* * *

**Spartan Anna – 151**

**Episode VI: The Finale Of Reach**

* * *

**The Chosen One…**

"YOU'LL NEVER CATCH ME ELSA!" A five years old Anna yelled joyfully while she ran as a thunder among the multitude gathered on the palace's courtyard of Arendalle; her green sundress tangled on the people's legs during her run.

Since it was new year's eve: men, women and children were looking upwards to the balcony in the main building, waiting anxiously the moment when the king and the queen would begin their speech to welcome the year.

"ANNA! DON'T GO TOO FAR!" Elsa: The eight years old sister cried worriedly in response, she was also making her way across the people the fastest she could to find the tiny redhead, taking care of not lash against anybody and apologizing each time she accidentally did.

The little strawberry blonde girl ignored her sister's plea and kept running in zig-zag around the citizens, giggling about how behind she had left Elsa.

(Thud!) "Ow!" Anna closed her eyes and covered her nose in pain when she crashed against someone else's legs, she shook her head to reduce the sting and blinked several times to focus her blurred sight.

Then the strawberry blonde looked up to see a young woman with gray hair falling to the height of her shoulders, an also gray turtle-neck sweater and a white skirt that descended to her knees, the clothes of this lady was something she had never seen before.

The tiny redhead gulped in fear of the fact that the mysterious woman might be pissed at her… but instead she looked down to her and smiled warmly.

"Hello sweetheart, are you lost?" The woman asked gently as she kneeled to level with Anna.

"Hi! I'm Anna! You wanna' build a snowman?" Anna relaxed and greeted the lady cheerfully.

"Anna… that's a beautiful name darling, mine's Halsey…" The woman replied chuckling "Where are your parents?"

"There! On the top!" The tiny redhead said innocently, pointing with her finger to the castle's balcony on the distance, the mysterious lady raised her gaze to see a man in a black costume with a cup on his hand; apparently he was talking but the crowd's mumbling made impossible hear clearly his speech.

"Your dad is the king?!" The woman said, apparently surprised "So you are a princess then?"

"YUP!" The little strawberry blonde giggled, smiling again with her hands on her back.

"That's wonderful sweetheart… Anna, may I ask you something?"

"Uhh… I don't know, my sister says I shouldn't talk with strangers"

"You have a sister too?"

"Sure! Elsa is my older sister! She is very bossy sometimes, but she's my best friend and I love her!" Anna was just so adorable, and innocent.

"She sounds incredible" The mysterious lady replied "But you don't have anything to worry about, I'm not a bad person… I want to be your friend"

"Yay!" Anna squealed happily, giving small hops in the air "We could play together, go camping, read stories, make sleepovers, eat many chocolate and build lots of snowmen together!" The tiny redhead babbled rambling.

"I like your enthusiasm Anna" The woman replied after a few chuckles "That's why we picked you…" Anna looked at her curious "You're gonna' do so many great things, you will be stronger than you can imagine… you will become a wonderful spartan…"

"S-s-spar-ten? Wha-"

"Anna!" The tiny redhead turned to the call of her name, giving her back to the mysterious lady before she was able to finish her question.

"There you are!" An exhausted Elsa approached to her, panting for air "I told you to not go very far! It's almost midnight, we must be with mom and dad"

"Elsa!" Anna smiled again and took her sister's hand "You have to meet my new best friend! She's-"

For the moment the little strawberry blonde turned anew: The curious woman was already gone, confused, she looked around to find her again, only encountering the coats of people she didn't knew, it was like her new friend just vanished in the air.

"Anna, I told you to not talk with strangers!" Elsa scolded her "Come on, we can't be late"

Anna didn't hear her sister's orders, she continued staring at the crowd in front of her, completely oblivious to external stimulus; intending to comprehend what has ocurred.

"Anna" Her sister called her again… and she ignored her again…

"Anna…"

"Anna…"

"ANNA!"

* * *

**The Pillar Of Autumn**

**August 30, 2552, 1652 Hours**

**Aszod, Eposz**

"ANNA!"

(SMACK!) Suddenly awakening from her dream: Anna shot her eyes open, in first reaction and not very aware of the current situation she slapped the person that was calling her as a defensive maneuver.

Unfortunately for her… the person she hit was her partner: Noble six.

"She talked to me! I SWEA-Oh crap" The strawberry blonde began to babble, still a little sleepy "Six!? I-I didn't mean to! I'm so sorry! Wha-what's going on!?" She quickly apologized to her mate, looking at her surroundings to find herself sitting in one of the pelican's seats, which was flying turbulently and making everything unbalance.

For what she could hear there was a huge party outside the pelican.

Anna stared at noble six kneeling before her with his hands on her shoulders, then she spotted her other partners: Carter was at the bottom piloting the ship and Emile still was in the vehicle's opened gate, wielding a grenade launcher to deal with two banshees following the pelican.

The gray Spartan shook his head to reduce the stinging pain in his face inflicted by Anna, who blushed awkwardly at this.

"Anna!" He began to speak, slightly shaking her shoulders "I need you here with us! This is no time for sleeping!"

"I-I wasn't sleeping" Anna replied, rubbing her eye with her hand and yawning a little "I-I've been up f-for… hours…" she barely continued, almost falling asleep again "Who is it!?"

(BANG!) (BANG!) The strawberry blonde finally woke up when many plasma shots intruded inside the pelican, almost impacting the spartans but certainly reaching the pilot's cabin.

"Noble leader" Auntie Dot called "I suggest you to seek for immediate medical attention… please respond"

Was in that moment when Anna and Noble six saw Carter's helmet hit the floor, worried: Both Spartans stood up and approached to noble one, wondering if he was still alive despite the ship's turbulence that made such simple task difficult.

(BOOM!) (THUM!) (CRASH!)

Emile finally managed to damage and destroy one of the banshees chasing them, then in one lucky shot the destroyed ship diverted from its course and ended up crashing with the other, shooting down both banshees.

"Noble one" The A.I. called again "Please respond, you're alarming me" Anna and noble six were already at Carter's side.

"Not sure how long the ship's gonna' stay together!" Noble one said to his partners "You must get out of here spartan!" He was badly injured: He had a few plasma impacts on his chest, blood was pouring from his mouth, nose and one of his eyes, even there were red stains on the window's cabin.

Anna gasped terrified at the image of her wounded friend, and yes: It was more alarming now that she was able to call Carter 'friend'.

"MY GOD! CARTER!" She cried worriedly "YOU NEED TO-"

"Don't wanna' hear it!" Noble one cut off her "Get the package to the Autumn" Then Anna remembered the A.I. capsule she had attached to her utility belt in her lower back.

"We will…" She replied, biting her lip to fight the powerlessness "Don't worry, we will…"

"Emile, go with them! It's a ground game now!"

"It's been an honor sir!" The black Spartan answered from the back, dropping the unloaded grenade launcher, behind him: Two more banshees appeared from the horizon to replace the destroyed ones and continue the chase.

"Likewise!" Carter replied "I'll do what I can to draw their fire…"

"Let's go Anna…" Noble six said to the redhead, parting from Carter's side, both walking to the pelican's opened gate at the back.

"Anna!" Noble one called the strawberry blonde before she had to leave, she attended hopeful.

"That A.I. chose you… She made the right choice…"

That was enough: Anna couldn't restrain herself anymore, she let out a small sob and ran back to the pilot's cabin, once there she approached to Carter and gave him a quick kiss on his cheek, ignoring the fact that he was covered in blood.

"I will never forget you…" The strawberry blonde said with watery eyes "Co-commander…" she moved her hand upwards to her forehead, making a military salute to noble one, who only nodded in approval.

After that the redhead girl walked in the opposite direction to gather with Emile and Noble six standing at the pelican's opened entrance.

"Where are we going?" Anna asked.

"Down…" The black spartan answered, then the strawberry blonde stood in the edge of the floor, peeking to the rock valley full of death nature which the ship was overflying at fast speed, she gulped as her knees began to tremble and the nauseas made her stomach churn.

"YOU MEAN DOWN THERE!?" It didn't matter if there was a fall from outer-space to the atmosphere, or just a hundred-meter fall: Anna hated heights, and nothing would ever change that "How are gonna' get there anyway!?" she asked facing her partners again.

"Legs together" Noble six approached to the redhead and gave her some indications "cross your arms in front of your chest and tight your body"

"Uhh… s-sure, li-like this?" Perplexed, Anna obeyed the commands: She stood firm with her ankles together and her arms crossed in front of her chest.

"I'm sorry…" He apologized.

"Sorry? WhyYYAAAAAAAH!" The strawberry blonde yelled in the air when the gray Spartan pushed her back, throwing her off from the pelican into the rock valley, then he and Emile also jumped from the ship to gather with her in the ground.

(THUD!) "UGH!" Anna landed abruptly with her head on a slope and kept rolling down over it like a ragdoll, raising dust during her fall; if her body wasn't genetically modified: She easily would have broken all her bones.

At last the redhead reached the land: Something crackled inside her head, the environment's sounds slowly attenuated, her eyelids felt heavy but still she managed to see Carter's pelican in the sky being chased by two banshees and a phantom, leaving behind a trail of black smoke at its way.

"Anna? ANNA!" The shapes in the distance blurred and became dark smudges in her visual field.

Then her body gave up… Anna lost consciousness…

* * *

**Delivering Hope…**

**October 15, 2517, 2230 Hours**

**Reach's Military Complex**

Halsey wandered around the dark forest in her bulky beige winter coat, mumbling insults about the person who made her go out of her warm and cozy office to venture into the woods past dinner time; she received the notice that one recruit of the Spartan-II project has been lost for hours and the trainers, nor the other kids were capable of finding him… or her.

The doctor kept walking, holding a small lantern in front of her to see where she was stepping; the breeze was quite strong and freezing that night, even it was possible to see a few snowflakes dancing in the air, something curious at that time of the year; the fog had settled on the shrubbery in the form of a thin ice-layer.

'_Indeed, Reach has some of the most extreme temperatures I've ever seen'_ Halsey thought as she brought closer the coat's collar to her mouth, noticing that she was able to see her breath each time she exhaled; despite the wind's roar: The crunch of the branches and the leaves under her feet could be heard.

"When we find this kid, I'm personally gonna-"

"DR. HALSEY!" The doctor's mumbling was interrupted by the sudden call of her name, she froze in her step and turned around to see an ODST a few meters ahead, standing at the feet of a gigantic tree in the middle of the forest, tall enough to hide the moon in the sky.

"I hope you have a good explanation to get me out of my investigations, trooper" Halsey said, walking in direction to him, and by _'investigations'_ she meant to drink coffee in the coziness of her office.

"Well…" The soldier spoke, gripping a battle rifle with a lantern between his hands "Since we're talking about a member of YOUR project, we thought you could be interested, ma'am, besides: You know this kids better than any of us, so we hoped that you might know something helpful"

"That's accurate soldier, but we're talking of a kid, is not rocket science or quantum physics…" Sometimes these soldiers were just unbelievable.

"I know!" The trooper replied indignant "But that girl's just so fuckin' stubborn, she's been up there for hours!" He said looking up at the tree's thirty meters of height, the branches and leaves above created an excellent refugee against the blizzard, which by then had ceased to be now a gentle dance of snowflakes in the air.

"She?" The doctor questioned, raising an eyebrow "Who's up there then?"

"Well…" The ODST released one hand from his weapon, reaching for one device in his utility belt "We already did a roll call over all recruits and the missing one seems to be the number… 151…"

"Anna!?" The doctor nearly gasped in terror when she remembered that little strawberry blonde girl she began to care about since that moment back at the interrogation room.

"That's her name?" The soldier asked, oblivious to Halsey's reaction.

"I think it is, I'm not sure…" Halsey replied, disguising her concerning about the tiny redhead. _That was close…_

"Well…" The trooper took a step forward, gazing again to the top of the tree "That will have to work…"

"CADET 151!" The ODST yelled to the four winds, and with that a tiny redhead with a hurt look on her sapphire eyes emerged from one branch above, peeking down to him, she just vanished as fast as she appeared "GET DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW! THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING!"

There was no response…

"DON'T MAKE ME GO UP THERE! OR I WILL-" (PUFF!) The trooper's shout was silenced by a snowball that landed on his blue visor; he shook his head to wipe out the snow, then in a fit of anger he wielded his battle rifle attached to his back and pointed it upwards in direction to the small strawberry blonde.

"What do you think you're doing, soldier!?" Halsey questioned loudly, quickly placing her hand on the gun's barrel, making it descend to a place where it couldn't harm anyone.

"Easy doctor, is loaded with non-lethal ammunition" The ODST answered, releasing the rifle from Halsey's grab and pointing it upwards anew.

"Tell me it will not hurt her" Halsey demanded to know, the soldier kept awkwardly silent "… Just let me have a few words with her, to see if I can convince her…" the doctor resumed.

The trooper hesitated for a moment, but at last he gave up: He receded and saved his weapon anew, giving his back to the doctor in frustration "Make it quick, ma'am…"

"Thank you…" Halsey sighed relieved and stepped forward, looking above to the branch where Anna was.

"Anna!?" she raised her voice, calling for the little girl.

"M-m-miss Halsey?" Anna timidly peeked down from above the tree, staring innocently at the doctor, who was smiling warmly to her, and consequently made her smile as well.

"Anna… what are you doing up there?" Halsey kindly asked, yet concerned about the kid "Aren't you cold?" Now she sounded like a mother. _Damn it…_

"Uh… Nope!" The strawberry blonde replied, nearly shouting "I-I just wanted to be alone, the cold never bothered me anyway…" She completed with a shy smirk.

"Can I shoot her now?" The ODST asked sarcastically, muffing about the doctor's tactics.

"SHUSH!" Halsey cut him off, then she took some more air before start talking anew.

"Anna, please, you're not in trouble-"

"The hell she is!" The trooper mumbled.

"Just come down please, whatever it made go up there: I assure you is not as bad as you think, we can talk about it if you wish to, but we can't help you if you don't let us, please come down sweetheart…"

For the moment Halsey finished talking, Anna was already out of sight, she never replied, instead the strawberry blonde let her sobs be the answer.

Disappointed: The doctor stared at the ground and let her hands fell to the sides, giving a deep exhaustive breath; then she glared back at the ODST, who just shrugged indifferent, almost in a mocking manner, with that Halsey recovered some composure with the realization of what she had to do, she clenched her fists and started to walk to the tree.

"_I'm gonna' regret this…"_

Anna was sitting in the tree's branch, laying her back on its trunk, embracing her bent legs against her chest and resting her forehead on her knees; she's been like this for hours, specifically when the recruit's practice ended.

It was a team activity, a relay race in which the last team in finishing the section wouldn't have the right to dinner.

Anna's team was the last, in fact: It was her fault that her team couldn't have the chance to eat and so: Go to bed with empty bellies because she tripped and loss the activity; some of the cadets laughed, others yelled to her, but nobody helped her.

As soon as the trainer announced the results: Anna ran deep into the forest, sought for the tallest tree and climbed the highest she could to be alone and clean her thoughts.

The little strawberry blonde didn't knew exactly for how long she's been up there, she remembered watching the sunset and the time when the sky went dark and the clouds vanished to be replaced by the stars and the moon.

Since then Anna has been submerged in her own thinking: She missed her family, she missed her home and her previous life so much, this place was too tough, she wondered what she did to deserve this punishment… and when it would end.

Unfortunately, her questions remained unanswered; whenever she asked why: The tiny redhead only received shouts and insults that didn't help her to solver her doubts, and for that and many other reasons she jus hid from the mean persons and kept crying, regardless of the low temperatures of the night or the fact that she was covered in dust because of her fall.

Suddenly Anna heard a few gritty noises getting close to her, like if someone was climbing to the tree and were slipping with the snow resting on its branches; Still she didn't gave it importance, she just continued with her sobbing, thinking that the sounds would stop at any moment.

"You-you know I shouldn't be doing this, right!?" The tiny redhead was snapped out from her thoughts by a feminine voice, she raised her sight to see the doctor Halsey, struggling to step up on the branch she was sitting in.

"Luckily I'm still young enough to do this…" At last the doctor managed to sit in the tree, sighing wearily and assuming a similar position to Anna's, recovering her breath "Nice refugee you got yourself up here…" she said, the little girl just stared at her, tilting her head to the side in confusion.

Was in that moment when Halsey finally got a clear picture of Anna: Her eyes were red because of the crying, she had a few trails of dry tears all across her freckled cheeks, her hair was a mess and her sports uniform like herself were stained with dirt, she could see that her knees were injured and the wounds were covered with clotted blood.

The strawberry blonde made a pout and gave the doctor a hurt look with her big turquoise blue eyes, similar to a plea; the image of the sadden girl touched Halsey's heart like only a few things in her life had before, her facial features dropped at this, full of concerning; any remaining sign of anger was forgotten in that instant.

"Anna, what in the name of-" Halsey exclaimed worriedly "You know for how long we've been looking for you? What happened?" she asked, softening her voice tone this time.

"I… I don't want to be here anymore…" Anna replied in a sob, wiping some tears from her eyes "I miss my family…"

"Oh Anna…" The doctor said "We already talked about this: You can't go now…" she attempted to lean closer to the little girl, frightening her a bit when she found out her intentions, so she kept her distance.

"Here people are very mean to me…" The strawberry blonde resumed, glaring down at the ODST at the feet of the tree "I don't have many friends and I can't do anything right…" She felt another wave of crying approaching, being evident by a teardrop escaping from the corner of her eye.

"Miss Halsey?" The doctor attended "I always did what my parents said, I didn't do anything wrong… I just wanna' go home, please… I beg you… wha-whatever I did, I-I… I'm sorry… I'm so s-s-sorry…" Finally the tiny redhead broke into painful sobs, burying her head between her knees anew.

'_How to explain?' _How to explain to a little girl that she will never be able to return home, that she will never see her family again, that the life she knew and the dreams she had simply couldn't come back anymore.

Guilt got the best of Halsey: Anna was the finest example of why the Spartan-II Project was abhorrent, a mistake; even when it was needed to save mankind.

'_This is wrong, no one deserves this, the end does NOT justify the means' _But there was no turning back now: Despite the abomination of her doing, the doctor held to her ideals and arguments because she had to, not because she wanted.

After all: None of it meant that she couldn't do something right… at least one single time.

"Anna…" Halsey leaned closer to the strawberry blonde, sitting at her side and holding her between her arms; Anna responded to the doctor's actions and remained still, closing her eyes and sinking her nose into the doctor's shoulder, never stopping sobbing.

"What we did to you… and the other kids…" Halsey continued, patting gently the girl's hair "Has no name… no one should go through what you're going through… so young… and you have to assume responsibilities that are not even yours… forced to grow up quickly, far away from your family and home…"

Halsey wiped some tears from Anna's cheeks with her thumb, and then reached for one pocket in her coat, pulling out a white hanky that she used to clean the dirt on the little redhead's face.

"But the truth is… We need you… we need you to make a better world for the kids like you… we need you because you are unique, special… I knew it since the moment I first saw you… It'll be hard I know, but I'm sure you will keep forward, because you never give up… and you love help people…"

Carefully Anna looked upwards hopeful with watery eyes to the doctor above, who was smiling warmly at her.

"You are destined to do amazing things… Amazing things that will make your parents proud when you return home… and we want to help you make that happen, because we believe in you… I believe in you, Anna…"

At last Anna smiled for the first time in days and returned the embrace to Halsey when she finished talking, still crying but now for happier reasons; she felt as she recovered something that was torn away from her.

All she needed was someone to tell her everything would be fine, someone to comfort her… someone who cared about her…

"T-Th-Thank You… M-mom…" Anna replied in a coo, burying her face deeper into the doctor's shoulder and tightening the hug around her waist; she couldn't help it: It just felt so familiar and welcoming.

'_Mom!? Hmmm… Mom… It doesn't sound that bad…' _At first instance Halsey froze solid: She never saw herself starting a family, she always sought more for professional priorities and shoved aside the sentimentalisms… but Anna made it sound fine… right… before she noticed, she already had developed a little bond for the tiny redhead.

'_Oh what the hell!' _After all… she wasn't the only one, and there wasn't anything wrong with it…

"I-I-I Mean, M-miss Halsey!" By surprise Anna's eyes snapped open when she realized what she just said, quickly pulling out from the embrace with a furious blush on her freckled cheeks, causing the doctor to chuckle a bit.

"Hey, it's alright, snowflake…" Halsey said softly as she chastely pressed her lips on the little strawberry blonde's forehead "You like that? I'm not very good with nicknames…"

"I like it…" The tiny redhead whispered.

"Very well snowflake…" The doctor resumed, attempting to stand up in the tree's branch with clumsy and sporadic movements "Now let's get you back to your camp"

"Sure thing, doc!" Anna exclaimed cheerfully, standing up on her own to help Halsey with her equilibrium.

"Whoa! Whoa! WHOAAAAAHHHH-!"

"ANNA!" Halsey wasn't fast enough to catch Anna when she barely saw her losing the balance, slipping down with the snow in the branch.

(THUD!) (THUD!) (THUM!)

It was too late: The doctor could only witness how the small strawberry blonde fell from the tree and crashed with its branches several times before she touched the ground.

(THOM!) Anna landed in snow, her back cracked in the impact, she felt dizzy and deaf for a brief moment, her body wasn't responding to her mind's commands, she felt so light then, like if she were floating in thin air.

She only stared quietly to the night sky and its stars, watching how snowflakes and leaves descended slow and gently from the gigantic tree she just fell from, letting the soft breeze caress her skin.

"Anna!" "Anna!" "Cadet!" Her ears began to recognize the environment's sounds, and contradictorily the shapes in her visual field became huge smudges and blurred lights; but Anna didn't care: She was so tired, her eyelids felt so heavy, she just let them shut and sighed before everything attenuated into dark and silence.

"Anna…"

"Anna…" The calls continued, lulling her.

* * *

"Anna!" In the end Anna regained enough strength to wake up and get herself together, she blinked repeatedly to focus her sight and wipe away the fatigue.

"H-huh…?" She whined quietly at the image of her partner: Noble six kneeling beside her, she wasn't going to slap him this time, mostly because she hadn't the energy to do so.

"Anna, can you hear me?" The gray Spartan asked concerned, holding the strawberry blonde's cheeks between his hands, forcing her to look at him, yet being gentle at it.

"T-that-t was… Awesome…" Anna whispered, still a little lethargic and sore, but being able to find herself lying in the ground at the middle of the rock valley "C-can we do it again?"

"How is she?" She heard Emile's deep voice in the background, he was standing only a few steps away from her and the gray Spartan.

"She's been better, but I think she's okay" Noble six responded to him, parting his sight from the strawberry blonde.

"We have to go, we're running out of time" The black Spartan said coldly.

"Uh, guys, I'm still here, you know?" Anna spoke from beneath, causing the gray Spartan to turn at her, he offered her a hand to help her rise from the ground "Thanks…" she replied at Noble six as he pulled her up.

"Anna, where is the A.I.?" The gray Spartan questioned.

"Huh?" Anna looked at her back, noticing that she didn't had the capsule attached to her utility belt anymore "Oh Crap!" She glared at her surroundings desperately in search of the device, but it wasn't in any place she could reach with her eyes "Shit, shit, SHIT!"

(TING) (TING) (TIRIIIIIiiiinnnggg) Both Spartans posed their sights in the cliff above them when, by art of magic: The A.I. capsule appeared descending on the rocky slope, rolling in direction to Anna's feet, incredibly harmless.

"Here it is!" The strawberry blonde exclaimed, picking up the device from the land and proudly showing it to the gray Spartan before her, who only remained still, intending to comprehend what he just witnessed.

Noble six gave up in trying to understand the reason of his mate's divine fortune and left the scene to gather with Emile; Anna just shrugged at this and saved the capsule again in her lower back, walking to catch up with the gray Spartan, linking her arm with his as if they were college friends when she reached his side.

"What were you dreaming about?" The gray Spartan asked to break the ice.

"Huh?" Anna mumbled, throwing his mate a confused look with an eyebrow raised.

"You tend to talk and kick in your sleep like a baby, it's quite… interesting…" Six completed, making the redhead blush like an apple.

"Oh! That-I-I… I was just-t… remembering how I… got my fear to heights!"

Noble six kept silence and shook his head in a friendly manner, causing Anna to hit him in the shoulder, he faked pain and rubbed his arm, the strawberry blonde just giggled.

"That's our destination: The Pillar of Autumn" Emile, Noble six and Anna stood up in front of a precipice, staring at the gigantic human-cruiser at the horizon, the clouds in the sky were black and deafening thunders sounded above them, then they spotted Carter's pelican in the distance, also heading to the ship and being chased by two banshees and a trail of dark smoke.

"Let's go…" The black Spartan encouraged, approaching to a path which leaded to a lower level of the valley… and to a covenant patrol as well; Noble six followed him close, Anna just stayed behind for a moment, gulping in fear at what might happen next.

"Don't worry, we'll help each other, right?" Anna said softly, conversing with the device in her back and tightening the grip in her magnum. _I've got a bad feeling about this…_

* * *

"I'm being serious, six!" Anna spoke to Noble six as they walked together inside an orange rock cave that worked as route to the autumn, away from unnecessary firefights, Emile was at the front, oblivious to his partner's talking.

"You and my sister would get along pretty well" The redhead continued "You're almost like the same person! Except for- you know- she's a girl, you're a guy, a-an awesome guy if you allow me! Bu-but it's just that-that she's a princess and you-you're, you know, like-like a soldier and I'm not sure she would like that… A-A-AND WITH THAT I'M NOT SAYING YOU COULDN'T DATE MY SISTER BE-BECAUSE YOU SHOULD! I-I-I mean you could! 'cause she's incredible, you're incredible, you two would make a great couple! I-it's just that-that I-I-"

"Noble! You've got a… situation…" Carted spoke in the communicators.

"Motherfu…" The three Spartans dropped their jaws to the ground at the image of a scarab climbing a mountain, waiting outside the cave they were in, specifically waiting for them…

"We can get past it, sir!" Emile said, intending to motivate his partners and himself.

"WE CAN!?" Anna yelled in disbelief, she usually was the optimist in the team… but right now destiny wasn't at their side.

"No, you can't…" Noble one replied from the radio, his voice had a sign of defeat "Not without help…"

"Commander, you don't have the fire power!" The black Spartan answered as the scarab started to charge its plasma canon, illuminating the cave in a blinding green.

"I've got the mass…" Carter's pelican appeared in the sky, drawing the covenant vehicle's attention.

"Roger that…" Emile replied "Hit 'em hard, boss…"

"You're on your own, noble… Carter out…"

"The mass?" Anna turned perplexed to her mates "What is he gonna-"

(CRASH!) (THOOOM!) (KA-BOOOOM!)

"NOOO! CARTER!" As expected: Anna could only witness how Carter sacrificed himself to destroy the scarab, crashing his pelican against it and vanishing in a storm of smoke and fire.

The covenant vehicle, now severally damaged, was consumed by following explosions to the collision and so, fell behind the mount it was climbing, completely disabled.

Anna didn't hesitate to run out of the cave as fast as she could to the place where the scarab landed with her eyes drowned in tears and her soul broken by anger and sadness; Noble six quickly ran after her when he found out the strawberry blonde's intentions.

"ANNA! STOP!" The gray Spartan reached her mate, holding her strongly by the waist to prevent her from hurting herself.

"NO NO! LET ME GO! LET ME GET HIM OUT OF THERE!" Anna cried with everything in her lungs, struggling hysterically to release from Noble six's grab.

"He's dead! There's nothing you can do about it!" Emile arrived to the scene and helped the gray Spartan to restrain the redhead.

"I WON'T ABANDON HIM!" At last Anna escaped from the spartan's grip, but she didn't ran… instead she faced them with her sapphire eyes submerged in rage and tears, she had her fists clenched and a suffering expression in her face… she just lost it…

"S-s-spartans never d-d-die…" The redhead stuttered, calming down and replacing the anger with sorrow "They're just missing in action…"

(KA-BOOOM!) Another huge explosion sounded behind the mountain, lightening the entire valley for a moment and raising a colossal cloud of black smoke which flew to the sky and made the atmosphere even darker.

"Well, we'll all be 'missing in action' if we don't keep going!" Emile scolded the female Spartan, pointing to the horizon to remark what just occurred in front of their noses.

Anna didn't answered, she just collapsed to her knees, bursting into sobs, she covered her face with her both hands, trying to hide herself from this crude nightmare, the tears fell from between her fingers into the soil… it was too much for her…

Filled with concern: Noble six slowly approached to the strawberry blonde lying in the ground, he crouched before her and pulled her into a warm, comforting embrace; Anna did not even bothered to look at him, but still she buried her nosetip into his shoulder, drowning her crying on him.

"Shhh… It's alright, it's over… I've got you…" The gray Spartan whispered, patting slightly on the strawberry blonde's back; her sobs echoed in the entire cave, Emile turned away from them, staring emptily at the horizon to avoid being part of the drama.

"Make it stop… just stop it, please… I-I can't take it anymore…" Anna begged in a mutter, tightening the hug around her mate's torso; It was everything she could do: Her body was frozen solid, her chest felt unbearably heavy to the point she had to pant for breathing, the energies left within her body were focused in keeping her awake.

All she wanted was die, to fall asleep and never wake up again, instead of having to stand tragedy after tragedy that just tortured her and those dear to her; Anna never moved a muscle, she simply stood still, reviving the whole moment in her mind, wondering how she could have prevented it.

Noble six only held her partner for god knows how long, he also need comfort: Everything looked black for them, for Reach, for humanity… but he had to be strong, to go forward because, if there was any remaining hope, however small it could be… it rested on their shoulders, most specifically Anna's.

In that moment the gray Spartan realized that: Regardless of the fact that the planet might be destroyed, all their efforts would be in vain if Anna failed… but… in the other hand: If Anna succeeded… nothing else would matter… mankind would live to see another day.

He had to be strong… for Anna… she was the key to win this battle… only her…

"Crevice to the east…" Emile said, turning at the other spartans, the gray spartan looked upwards to him "Let's go…" He went out of the cave.

Noble six nodded, rising and picking up Anna from the ground to carry her in a bridal style, just as he had to in previous occasions.

With the broken strawberry blonde in her arms: The gray Spartan walked to catch up with his partner in the front, hoping that the redhead would recover in any moment, they needed her.

We needed her…

* * *

"GrrrrRGAHR!" The elite growled before falling onto the ground with a bullet on its head; despite the fact that the sangheili was already dead: Anna kept pointing her magnum at the alien, throwing to it a threatening stare, more intimidating than the gun's barrel itself.

The remaining Spartans of the noble team arrived to the dry-dock where The Pillar Of Autumn was being prepared to enter in orbit, away from the doomed planet Reach; they were welcomed by a huge deployment of covenant forces they had to take down before a pelican could be there to pick up the data package, also known as the A.I. capsule.

Anna drowned her rage, calming herself for a brief moment to face Noble six at the landing platform a few steps away from her.

They stood in the courtyard of a huge building in the background, the walls, like the floor were gray and yellow, dozens of dead covenants rested in the soil; many landing bridges hung from the cliffs in the middle of giant stones and dry vegetation.

On the distance it was the human cruiser: The Pillar of Autumn occupying a considerable portion of the valley, beyond it there was a storm, which darkened the sun with its furious thunders and black skies, beneath several warthogs were fighting with scarabs and many other covenant's land vehicles.

(THOOOM!) "Huh?" The female Spartan was surprised by the deafening roar of the gigantic MAC Canon in a tower at the back, which illuminated the entire place with each shot against phantoms and banshees overflying the dry-dock, being controlled by Emile.

In any other moment she would've felt overwhelmed by this situation, but at this point Anna has seen a lot of things, more than she was capable of imagine, assimilate, understand… and tolerate; still she never gave this world an opportunity to change who she was, she loved to learn and help… but sometimes… things were just really tough… and she had to deal with it at any cost…

Anna pushed aside her depression when she spotted Noble six at the landing platform, who told her in a gesture to gather with him; she forced herself to smile and responded with a wave of her arm, running towards the gray Spartan.

"This is Keyes" One male voice sounded in the radios "I'm beginning approach to delta platform, ready to take possession of the package, noble"

Anna and Noble six stared at two pelicans slowly descending to the platform where they stood, spreading dust during its landing; Anna stepped back a little and covered her eyes to protect them from the dust.

The ships docked and the gates at their bottoms began to open; when these doors fully reached the floor, one old man in a full-body white costume with gray short hair came out from one of the pelicans, along with a squad of ODST's.

"Good to see you Spartans" The man spoke to six and Anna "Halsey assured me I could count on you"

"Not just us, sir" Noble six replied.

"Lots of folks died to make this happen, mister…" Anna said with a hurt look on her eyes, delivering the capsule to Keyes.

"They'll be remembered…" The old man replied, taking the device and placing a hand on her shoulder.

Unexpectedly everyone's attention headed to the horizon when a gigantic Covenant cruiser appeared above the clouds, covering the sun and leading to their position.

"Does this freaks NEVER HAVE ENOUGH!?" The redhead shouted at the ship in the distance.

"Noble four!" Keyes talked trough the communicators "I need fire on that cruiser or we're not getting out of here, do you copy?"

"You'll have your window, sir" Emile replied, the MAC Cannon slowly began to move, pointing to the clouds.

"This is the captain" Keyes spoke anew, boarding the pelican from where he came "We have the package, returning to the Autumn, over."

Anna, noble six and the troopers followed him close, she and the ODST's got onto the ship, but the gray Spartan stayed behind, in alert, pulling out his assault rifle from his back.

(THOM!) (THOM!) (BOOM!) (CRASH!)

As soon as one of the pelicans took off from the platform: It was sudden, quick and hopelessly taken down of the air by the mighty plasma shots of a phantom that came out of nowhere; fortunately it wasn't the pelican Anna and Keyes were boarding.

(CRANG!) (KA-THUUM!)

"SIX!" The redhead could just cry powerless from her ship when she watched how the damaged pelican fell to the landing bridge, almost crushing noble six.

Luckily the gray spartan jumped out of the way in time before the ship could splatter him, leaving it descend to the cliff by itself, surrounded for smoke and fire; Anna sighed relieved at this.

Regaining some composure and his weapon from the floor: Noble six got up and pointed his rifle at the phantom that threatened his life just a few seconds ago, which already had left the platform, setting itself above the tower where the MAC canon was settled and so: Where noble four was…

The covenant dropship opened fire against the gray Spartan in the landing bridge before he could even press the trigger, fortunately the plasma shots weren't too precise and impacted in the floor around noble six, leaving him almost harmless.

For that reason he did not saw the moment when the phantom released two elites in crimson armor with energy swords onto the control cabin of the canon.

(BANG!) One of the sangheilis was intended to break through the cabin's door, but it was welcomed by a shotgun's pellet bursting out from a window, destroying the beast's energy shields.

The alien fell backwards badly wounded, grappling to its dying breath; The gray spartan spotted Emile in the distance coming out of the control room, throwing at the fallen elite another shot to finish him off.

"WHO'S NEXT!?" The black spartan's voice was heard in the entire dry-dock, remarking his superiority over the covenant soldier.

"UURRGH!" Noble six saw the other sangheili that Emile didn't, silently approaching from behind, stabbing him with its energy sword that passed through his armor and came out from his chest; The elite recovered its blade from the spartan's torso and held him on the air as a puppet in a victorious manner.

"I'M READY! HOW 'BOUT YOU!?" Before reaching the eternal sleep: Emile pulled out his combat knife from its sheath attached to his shoulder and, with the remaining strength within his body: The black Spartan nailed the knife on the sangheili's neck and brought it with him out of sight.

After that not a sound, not a soul was heard; another member of the noble team has entered into the dark void, and Noble six could do nothing but stare uselessly; he shook his head and punched hard the ground under him, doing his best to repress the anger.

Even like that he was glad that Anna did not saw this hopeless scene… she couldn't have taken it…

"SIX!" Noble six stood up from the floor as he turned to see the pelican Anna was boarding getting close to the platform, floating a few meters above it.

"HURRY UP! WE HAVE TO GO NOW!" The redhead yelled from inside the ship, stretching her hand at the gray Spartan so he could take it.

Noble six hesitated for a moment; he glanced back at his surroundings, losing his glare on the base, the human and covenant corpses resting in the ground and the Covenant cruiser entering into the panorama, he pictured in his mind how everything ended like this: From the moment when he first got to the noble team, passing through the deaths of all his partners and the hopes that died with them.

Then he faced again the strawberry blonde Spartan in the pelican, he could clearly see the suffering in her eyes, begging to stop the slaughter; he also could tell, by the angst expression of her facial features, that all those previous sacrificed allowed no place for doubts or mistakes; the gray Spartan made his choice… There'll be another time…

"Negative…" At last noble six spoke anew, calmly but sure.

"Wait, WHAT!? What does that even mean!?" Anna shouted angrily, indignant and a bit disappointed, having troubles to understand what she just heard.

"I've got the gun…" The gray Spartan replied, giving his back to the redhead "Good luck…" He began to walk in the opposite direction to the ship, heading to the MAC canon; it was his turn to make the shot…

"Whoa! Hold it right there, mister!" Without thinking it twice: Anna jumped out from the pelican into the landing bridge and quickly ran after her partner, taking him by the arm and forcing him to face her when she reached his side.

"What the heck you think you're doing!?" She scolded the gray Spartan as she stared at her own reflection in the golden visor of his helmet "That covenant… ship-thing is coming to us and you're-"

"And that's exactly why I have to be certain you get to the Autumn" Noble six cut off her, never losing the composure, unlike the redhead; Keyes and the ODST's in the pelican just witnessed their scene in silence.

"Wait a minute, I KNOW THAT LOOK! This is not the time to play the hero, six! We're leaving NOW! You and me!"

"I'm sorry but… It has to be like this…"

"No is not! Six, NO!" Unexpectedly Anna's eyes became watery "I-I… I already lost the others, our entire team! I'm not gonna' lose you… not you…"

"Anna… you've been wondering what our partners died for?" Six placed his hands in the strawberry blonde's shoulders "They died for this! I'm not wasting their sacrifice… and I won't let you do it either… You're gonna' board that ship, get out of here and finish this war once in for all…"

"S-s-six, I… I can't do this without you… please, I beg you! We-we need you… I need you… If it weren't for you I… I…" Anna closed tightly her eyes in negation, leaning closer to the gray Spartan, hugging him for what it could be their last time together.

"Anna…" Six murmured, tucking a loose strand of Anna's red hair behind her ear, motivating her to open her eyes again, looking upwards to him hopeful.

"Just… Let it go…" He continued in a whisper "This is my choice… you already did yours, so I ask you to respect mine's… Let it go…"

The strawberry blonde spartan let escape a small sob before bursting in crying, cuddling her head into her mate's chest, refusing to leave his side; Noble six placed her arm around his nape and helped her to walk back towards the pelican when he saw the Covenant cruiser getting closer to their position, once there: The ODST's assisted the saddened redhead to get into the ship.

Noble six stood up in front of the pelican; slowly Anna turned back at him, wiping the tears from her eyes and face, never stopping sobbing.

"It was a pleasure, Anna…" The gray spartan said before turning on his heel and leading to the MAC canon at the back "Good luck…"

Biting her lip with her arms surrounding her waist, The redhead hesitated as she watched her best friend getting away forever, she gave up in trying to convince him to come with her, but something within told her that this shouldn't end like this, she gathered some bravery and ran out of the ship again.

"SIX!" Anna yelled, running towards noble six, who stopped and faced her, the redhead took by surprise the gray Spartan when she lashed against him and pressed her lips in his golden visor, noble six froze solid at his mate's actions: Te was undoubtedly thunderstruck.

"I'll be back for you!" Anna pulled out from the embrace "With all the help I can get! I promise it!" With that she quickly parted from her partner's side and returned to the pelican before her emotions made her change her mind, she barely saw the gray Spartan nod in approval just to keep walking, fading in the distance.

"All stations, prepare to cast off" Captain Keyes said trough the communicators, the pelican began the ignition, taking off from the platform and flying in direction to the giant human cruiser in the horizon, which was also starting its own engines to lift off from the land, spreading smoke over the entire dry-dock with the power of a burning sun beneath its propellers.

The redhead stood up still in front of the ship's opened gate, watching how the rock valley became smaller and smaller as the pelican got closer to the Autumn; Then she saw the gigantic covenant cruiser approaching to them, a blinding red light illuminated under it, preparing to decimate the ground-portion it was overflying.

Despite the fact that the alien ship didn't looked to anything she could relate to: Anna thought that, if hell exists, that's exactly how its gates should look like.

(CRRAAANG!) (KA-THOOOOM!)

A deafening thunder echoed in the whole atmosphere when the MAC canon impacted the covenant cruiser with a clean shot, leaving it severally damaged and unarmed, so the Autumn could get away safely from Reach.

Putting aside her sorrow: Anna finally gave herself an opportunity to be impressed, opening her eyes wide as plates and dropping her jaw at the image of the alien ship collapsing in the mountains, but above all else, of the fact that she escaped harmless from that genocidal machine.

She only wished that she wasn't the only one…

"There won't be another like him" The strawberry blonde was surprised by Keyes, approaching to her an placing his hand in her shoulder while he gripped the capsule with the other "It's sacrifice shall never be forgotten…"

"T-thanks… s-sir… It means a lot" Though Anna wasn't a liar: The captain's words did nothing to heal the wound in her soul, still she managed to face him and smile slightly… a fake smile…

Keyes simply nodded and parted from the redhead's side.

At last the pelican arrived to the human cruiser and docked inside one of its vehicle's hangars, setting firm in the floor; everyone aboard went out quickly from the ship, including the female spartan.

The hangar's gate slowly closed in front of her, taking away forever the scene of what until now has been her homeworld: Reach…

Anna wasn't aware of what was happening outside the steel walls: She looked at her surroundings, finding several warthogs and pelicans arranged in rows, just as hundreds of soldiers frantically running from side to side of the gigantic hall; a red light flashed repeatedly in the ceiling, making evident an alert state.

Submerged in depression: The strawberry blonde spartan walked aimlessly around the hangar with a fallen stare in the ground, lost in her own thoughts: Reflecting on how she ended in the middle of a war, if she made the right choices during her travel, and most important: If her friend noble six was alright.

She just kept walking, seeking the answers to her questions on her own, ignoing any external stimulus as the sadness consumed her soul…

(THOOOOOM!) (CRASH!)

Several mechanical noises outside the Autumn made the floor abruptly bent over, making everyone inside the hangar fall; the vehicles moved and even flied from their places to crash with the walls, threatening the lives of the soldiers, it seemed like the cruiser was having a bad time in the exterior.

(THUD!) "Ow!" Anna closed her eyes tightly and covered her nose in pain when the sudden movement of the ship made her lose the balance and threw her against a steel barrier; she blinked several times to reduce the sting and focus her view… and the ache vanished completely when she did…

"What in the name of-?" The redhead lost her breath when found that she didn't slammed her face with the wall: Before her there was a cryogenic capsule, which door had a glass slightly covered by frost, even like that it was possible to see the silhouette of a Spartan in green armor laying inside it, waiting to be awakened.

Beaten by curiosity: The strawberry blonde inspected carefully the capsule with her sight from top to bottom; she spotted a small plate, also covered by a thin layer of frost, she ran her hand over it to clean it, then she read in a whisper what was written on the plate.

"One… One… Seven… John…" Anna let out a silent gasp when she finished, a huge smile stretched her lips and wiped away the sorrow; staring dumbstruck at the presence of her new best friend.

"_He might want to build a snowman with me…"_ Perhaps not everything was lost…

* * *

"NNRGARGH! Aaarrghh…" Noble six exhaled his last breath as the golden-armored sangheili above him nailed an energy dagger in his chest, overpassing his armor; the gray spartan struggled to raise from the land, but he had given everything: The strength slowly abandoned him, consciousness also left his body… the fight was finished for him…

Noble six faded into the eternal sleep.

The elite stood up, pulling out its dagger from the spartan's lifeless torso; the beast stared silently at the corpse of noble six for a brief moment, then it glanced back at its several fallen brothers this human killed before he reached his inevitable outcome.

"You have paid for your sins, human…" The sangheili spoke in our tongue, looking proud to the isolated wasteland that once was Reach, its goal was completed and this planet doomed.

"Commander Vadam'ee!" The golden-armored elite turned to the mention of its name, another sangheili approached "Humans are escaping! One of their ships managed to overpass our defenses and leave the planet!"

Thel Vadam'ee clenched his fists and glanced up to the sky, refusing to believe that the assault wasn't absoulutely successful, then he turned on his steps and gathered with the other sangheili in blue armor.

"Get everyone back to the ships! We take no prisoners this day…"

* * *

"_Anna: Noble seven. Cheerful, full of hopes and clumsy… but effective. Her determination is almost as big as her innocence. It's hard to believe that she is a Spartan-II." _

Halsey's report about Anna's performance during the fall of Reach.


	7. Combat Evolved: The Prelude

HOE! HOE! HOE! It's Santa Evil Maker Claus here with your Christmas gift! … Two weeks later… YAY! :D … yay?

The delay has been way too long, I know! Many things are happening on my life right now and I didn't wanted them to have negative repercussions in this tale, so that's mainly why I took my time: I rather delivering you quality than quantity; it was very difficult for me to keep the standard complexity of the series in this chapter.

As it frequently happens with my updates: This chapter was intended to include at least three missions from Halo: CE campaign, but unexpectedly it got too long and I had to keep it shorter, however I'm very satisfied with the results: Finally another expected, over-hyped moment in this Frozen-Halo franchise has arrived, think of it as a little advance of what's coming next! It contains most of the elements I want to explore for the Installation 4 saga.

So, leaving aside the self-dick sucking introduction I proudly present to you the bubbly-lovely princess Anna of Arendalle teaming up with Master Chief; Hope you guys enjoy it, I will try to be back soon with another colossal update; I wanna' thank every single patient follower of this project! Each of you is an awesome human being! May the divines smile at you all!

_-Don't be a dick a leave a review will ya'? :3_

* * *

**Spartan Anna-151**

**Episode VII: Combat Evolved (The Prelude)**

* * *

**The Pillar Of Autumn**

"Cortana, all I need to know is: Did we lose them?"

The captain Keyes spoke, taking off his silver tobacco pipe from between his lips while his gaze wandered over the stars at outer-space through the windows surrounding the cruiser's main deck, specifically focusing his attention on a mysterious structure orbiting around a huge red planet, close to the autumn's course.

"I think we both know the answer to that…" Not very far from where he was standing: The hologram of a young woman with short hair shining in blue and purple appeared above a cylindrical metallic pedestal.

"We made a blind jump, how did they-"

"Got here first? The covenant's ships have always been faster" Cortana: The A.I. interrupted "And for tracking us all the way from Reach: Our evasive maneuvers were highly limited during the jump, no one could've miss the hole we tore on sub-space, they were waiting for us at the other side of the planet"

The captain sighed, he parted from the crystals that showed the constellations, walking towards the biggest of the many consoles within the bridge, his steps were greeted with military salutes from the engineers inside that steel room; the computer's screen displayed a scale image of the unknown structure outside the autumn, along with what seemed to be a landing route towards it.

"How's our situation?" Keyes scratched the back of his head and rubbed his chin, it that same order while he stared meticulously at the console's monitor.

"Our fighters are wiping off the last of their recon teams, nothing serious" Replied the A.I. "But I've isolated approach signatures from multiple battle cruisers, and in about ninety seconds they'll be all over us"

"Well, that's it then" The captain turned away from the computer to face the crew in the main deck "Activate the ship's combat alert 'Alpha'" A red light flashing in the roof followed that order, emitting a loud siren which near-deafening noise reached until the last corner of the ship, sign of imminent danger.

Every man within the bridge stood up from their control stations, switching places with each other repeatedly, pushing buttons and introducing commands in their computers to prepare the Autumn for battle; right now there was no place for calm or professionalism.

"I want everyone in this ship ready for action!" Keyes exclaimed.

"Everyone, sir?" Cortana questioned.

"Everyone…"

* * *

(THUM!) (THUM!) "Hellooooo? Anybody there? Can you hear me? Earth to… Whatever your name is!"

"Knock it off Anna! He can't hear you yet" The engineer at the observation booth complained though a speaker.

Anna was in the lower level of the vault, where all the cryogenic chambers were stacked in rows on each side of its walls, she retraced a little from the capsule in front of her to stop knocking on its crystal due to her contained emotion.

"Come on guys! Why is it taking you so long!?" The strawberry blonde spartan groaned, hopping anxiously in her stance like a child waiting for the candy store to open; she couldn't help it: She was more than eager, exited to meet her new partner, her new chance to do things right.

"Why is she here anyway?" Echoed a deep sigh on the speakers again.

"She was insistent, if not stubborn" Another engineer on a full-body orange costume replied "And I don't know about you Sam, but I wasn't going to say 'no' at someone who can lift a warthog with little effort…" He was also on the ground floor, monitoring closely the reanimation process… and keeping Anna from doing anything stupid, she just smiled and shrugged at those comments, not losing her enthusiasm.

"Whatever… Bringing all systems online, health monitors engaged, opening the cryo-tube in thirty seconds" The commands sounded on the whole room below the operation booth.

(Fuuumm) The strawberry blonde took another step back as the hushed casket before her started to expel white vapor at the air in large quantities, then she just continued with her small jumps of impatience, smiling from ear to ear while her braided pigtails bounced on her shoulders; the man beside her looked down on a terminal a diagram of the spartan inside the capsule.

"Unsealing in FIVE! FOUR! THREE! TWO! ONE!" Finally the cryogenic tube's gate opened upwards, revealing a green Mark V armor lying inside, apparently inert, but ever so slowly the golden visor of the soldier beneath that helmet began to point in all directions "Status on green, cycle complete…"

"…Wow…" Anna whispered with her hands clasped in front of her red-armored chest and her turquoise blue eyes widened as plates in pure amazement, a light smirk stretching her lips.

"Welcome back, Master Chief" The engineer greeted properly the Spartan on the capsule "Sorry for the quick call but we're in a hurry, the disorientation should pass in a few seconds"

"H-Hi!" Anna squealed, waving a hand on the air, her hops without being stopped yet, she resembled to a little fangirl meeting her idol for the first time in forever.

"Welcome back sir, we'll have ready for action in ASAP" The speakers joined to the conversation.

"You said we're in a hurry…" The green-armored Spartan spoke with the deepest of the voices, pushing himself up on his elbows "What's it about?"

"We're not very sure yet, sir, but something has the entire crew a bit jumpy" The engineer replied "Okay, sir: Go ahead and climb out of the cryo-tube so we can make a calibration diagnosis"

With firm and strong movements: The Master Chief raised from his freezing prison and descended to the metallic floor of the vault, the weight of his armor creating a loud echo on the room when his feet landed.

"…Wooaah…" It was majestic and impressive: Anna took one more step behind, giving way to the imposing green spartan as her smile grew even wider.

She'd heard the stories about him, his achievements and experiences, each of them told with nothing but respect and pride by the Autumn's crew and a few O.D.S.T.'s; she felt in the presence of a living legend, like those knights in shining armor from the tales she used to read when she was little.

"Vital signs and primal systems seem to be fine" The engineer checked on a terminal in front of the cryo-tube "I'll just reset your armor's settings to secure normal functioning; we usually would be running a complete analysis but we're short of time, this will just take a second" Master Chief nodded in silence and left the man doing his job while he continued wandering around the complex with his eyes.

"Um I-Ehhm-Uhhh…" A shy girl with pale, freckled skin and red hair combed in twin braided pigtails approached to the green spartan, scratching the back of her neck nervously while the words got stuck in the tip of her tongue, the soldier's golden visor looked down at her as if expecting, making her uncomfortable and intimidated, mostly because she noticed how he was, at least one head taller than her; she gulped hardly in shame.

After a few seconds this strawberry blonde defeated her fears and cleared her throat, ready to speak.

"Hi: My name is you and I'll be your Anna, what is your partner?" Said Anna very sure of herself, raising her palm for a hand-shake, Master Chief tilted his helmet slightly.

"Wait, what?" The redhead shook her head and twisted her eyebrows when her brain finished processing her words.

"Ah!-Eck-I meanI'mAnna andI'll beyourpartner! What'syourname!?" She corrected, talking so fast that she barely understood what she blurted, her hand was still hovering in the air, the green Spartan looked down at it in hesitation; Anna bit her lip anxiously.

"Spartan number six…" The silent soldier took and shook the strawberry blonde's hand respectfully.

"Wha-what did you just said?"Anna half-closed her eyes with inquietude, struggling to comprehend the unexplainable sensation of 'déjà-vu' she was experimenting, her mind dealing with blurred flashbacks, her hand still shaking his unconsciously _'He didn't said what I think he said, right?'_

"Spartan one, one, seven, call me 'Master Chief'" The green spartan clarified, raising slightly his voice tone as he released the redhead's palm.

"Oh… right, sure…" The strawberry blonde murmured for herself, looking away from his future mate _'Now that was strange…"_

"Okay, sir: We're ready for the energy shields test" The engineer gathered with the spartans "Please join me in the diagnosis stat-"

(THROOOM!) "Whoa!" From nowhere the entire vault trembled with thunderous mechanical noises, unbalancing everything inside; Anna nearly fell but her body never touched the ground, she looked above her shoulder to see what was holding her, a light blush spread on her freckled cheeks when she found Master Chief assisting her to rise anew.

"Bridge to cryo-station" One call on the speakers dragged everyone's attention as soon as the sudden earthquake-like movements ended "This is Captain Keyes, send the Master Chief to the bridge immediately"

"Captain Keyes…" Both Master Chief and Anna said in low voice simultaneously, the two of them exchanged puzzled stares when they realized about the coincidence.

"Affirmative, sir: We better get moving, the captain sounded worried" Suggested the engineer, then he, along with the two Spartans began to walk towards a steel door at the background, below the observation booth.

"I'd be worried too after what happened!" Anna commented, totally out of context as she was accustomed to "By the way, what happened?"

"Have no idea, Spartan" Replied the man "Sam: Open this door, we need to get the hell out of here!" He directed his speech upwards to the observation booth, the strawberry blonde and the green spartan also fixing their gazes there.

"Sure thing!" Said the engineer at the upper level, quickly placing himself in front of a console "I just need to reset the computer and I'll get you-"

(THUM!) (THUM!) (THUM!)

"Oh god!" A strong pounding thundered several times at the other side of the observation's booth entrance "They're trying to get through the door! SECURITY! INTRUDERS IN CRYO TUBE-ARRGGH!"

(BOOM!) (CRANG!) (BANG!) (BANG!)

The gates flied ripped off from the walls by a mighty explosion, followed by a plasma-shot rain that silenced effectively the now dead engineer's cry for help; the room above filled with black clouds and flames, covering the identity of the murderers behind a smokescreen.

"Oh god…" The strawberry blonde covered her mouth with her both hands in fearful awe, slowly retracing a few steps; even when she had seen a lot of good men fall in battle: Anna never got used to the death of her mates, especially when she felt she could've done something about it.

"Sam!? SAM!?" After naturally getting no response: The engineer accompanying the spartans started to walk towards the closed door before them, the one that separated the cryo-station from the rest of the ship.

"It's open! This way, Hurry!" Anna, Master Chief and the engineer stepped out of the vault, entering into a dark corridor that had another shut gate at the end; the engineer took the lead in order to set it open quickly, leaving behind the two super soldiers.

"Psst!" The strawberry blonde called in a hiss, leaning closer to the green spartan "I know it's not the best moment but… Darkness really makes very nervo-"

(CRANG!) (THOOOM!)

"AAAAAHHHHRRRGGG-" Abruptly a gigantic explosion travelling all over the passageway stormed through the gate the engineer was attempting to open, swallowing him and disappearing his body among the flames in the blink of an eye.

Huge pieces of steel rubbles were thrown in direction to the spartans; they covered their eyes due to the blinding light of the fire, at least the corridor wasn't dark anymore…

"NO!" Anna didn't hesitated in running towards what remained of the door, seeking to rescue the unfortunate man that this very morning escorted her to the cryo-station; however: Her brave efforts were stopped by another wave of raising flames blocking her path, yet she was decided to make her way through the blaze.

"We have to go, now!" The redhead's heroic intentions were restrained by a grip on her arm, she turned to see the Master Chief holding her back; a mix of confusion and anger built up within her, made evident by the frown of her face.

"Go!? We can't leave him there!" Replied the strawberry blonde a bit indignant, releasing herself from her partner's grab "We already let die a good man and-"

"And a lot more will die if we don't get to the bridge…" The green spartan said, his voice tone cold as ice "We must find another route"

"Okay! We get to the bridge, then what!?" Anna's rage vanishing slowly, yet she couldn't believe what she was hearing.

Master Chief looked away from the choleric girl towards a breach in the wall, which led to another obscure hallway, he began to climb over shattered metal pieces and several tubes on the ground; sparks, fire and resounding alarms were waiting at the other side.

"We show to the covenant who are they messing with…" He spoke to the redhead before continuing with his path.

"Wait, what? How do you- …Fuck…" The man's words just served to puzzle Anna, her own words arrived to deaf ears; standing still: She closed tightly her eyes and clenched her fists in defeat; this is not how she pictured her return to duty, her encounter with a legend; those moments at the cryo-station felt very distant by now.

Then the strawberry blonde sighed and stared in guilt to the fire consuming the engineer's body.

Then… For reasons she wouldn't know how to explain or understand, Anna found herself being hypnotized, attracted by the flames dancing in front of her eyes, staring at them without moving a muscle; the strange shapes that formed in the raising blaze awakened some memories from her previous missions.

The strawberry blonde spartan tilted her head to the side with a bizarre kind of curiosity; she felt as if the fire was calling her.

'_You really would be capable of replacing me?'_ A spectral voice emanated from the flames, echoing inside her mind _'Why did you abandoned me, Anna? Like you abandoned your family, your life and your home? … Why?'_

"I…" Anna closed tightly her eyes and brought her hand up to her forehead, intending to resist the sudden headache crushing her brain "I… I had no choice…" She said weakly.

The ambient grew cold and began to shake turbulently, a strong feeling of nausea seized the redhead's body, far worse than the dizziness that heights caused on her; her knees began to tremble, she laid on a near wall, a tiny blood drop fell from her nose.

'_I needed you… You promised me that would never leave me, you promised that you would end the pain… We fell because of you! Is your fault!'_

"No… no… You left me no choice…"

'_YOU KILLED ME!'_

"SHUT UP!"

"Spartan!" A strong voice from outside silenced the chaos within her, the sickness faded, everything was settled on its respective place, the environment stood firm and the flames felt warm again.

"Wha…" Anna blinked several times, having returned to reality from her inner conflict, surprisingly nothing had moved an inch, contrary to what she thought; she turned to find who was calling her: She encountered with Master Chief standing at the huge crevice on the wall, waiting for her to continue with their wander.

"There's nothing you can do for him…" Spoke the green Spartan with authority "We have to go, we're running out of time"

"Uhh I… S-sure, of course…" Was everything Anna could articulate; Master Chief shook his head and continued with his path.

Before going: The strawberry blonde glanced one more time at the flames, the phantasmal voice was still fresh on her mind; however she did her best to vanish those thoughts and started walking after her male companion, who was too far ahead by now.

"_This is not how I imagined my return to work…"_

* * *

"Captain Keyes…"

After having passed through several near-death experiences over a bunch of rooms and hallways of the Autumn, filled with ruthless covenant troops fighting UNSC marines: Anna and Master Chief arrived to the gray and white steel walls that conformed the cruiser's bridge as they were requested to do; Panic was fully present and intact within that room.

The man which name was pronounced turned away from the computer he had in front to face the newcomer spartans.

"Good to see you Spartans, things aren't going well" Spoke the captain as he took and shook respectfully the hands of both super-soldiers before him "Cortana is doing her best but we never really had a chance"

"With that attitude it doesn't surprise me…" Anna commented silently to Master Chief, who never acknowledged her efforts of communication.

"A dozen covenant battle cruisers against a single halcyon class cruiser…" As if in response to the redhead's comment: Cortana appeared above her metallic pedestal beside the console "With those odds I wouldn't be jumping around… Sleep well?" She directed her question to the green Spartan.

"No thanks to your driving, yes" Replied Master Chief.

"Oh boy, you'll have to excuse him" The A.I. looked beyond the armored man she was talking to "He just doesn't know how to behave with women"

"Yeah, I figured… Guys, am I right?" Anna giggled, shrugging innocently, both females shared playful smiles and stared back teasingly at Master Chief, who got unexpected but also comprehensibly surprised. _Did they already knew each other?_

(THOOOM!) The floor tilted, trembling abruptly once again by action of another huge explosion outside the ship; every person within the bridge loss the balance and fell to the cold steel ground with loud and numerous thunders.

"What now!? Ow…" Anna groaned angrily right after smashing her face against a nearby computer, rubbing her nose in pain.

"Report!" Demanded Keyes, being helped to recover from the impact by the spartans.

"It must been another of their boarding ships" Cortana answered.

"Alright then, guess I'll have to initiate 'Cole' protocol number two" The captain resumed "We're abandoning the Autumn…"

"What!? Leaving? But sir?" Anna placed herself before Keyes, getting full attention of the A.I. and the green Spartan as well "I know things look pretty bad, but we can't give up so easily; that won't stop the covenant and you know it"

"Anna is right, sir" Cortana supported "We can't just leave while you go down with the ship" Master Chief was only listening without making a sound.

"With all due respect: This war has enough dead heroes…"

"Ugh…" After those words were spoken: Anna felt her previous episode headache crawling again up her skull, she made a great inner effort to suppress the pain, frowning unconsciously as several flashbacks of past experiences appeared behind her eyelids, fortunately she wasn't getting unnecessary attention.

"_Heroes also fall… Is what makes them heroes… Well: E-enough dead heroes! …"_ The spectral voices had returned, far more overwhelming this time _"You left me to die…"_

"I appreciate your concern ladies" Replied Keyes "But the protocol is clear, it's not up to me: Destruction or capture of the ship's A.I. is absolutely unacceptable, this is where you and the Chief come in"

"Huh?" Luckily the captain's speech served to bring the strawberry blonde spartan out of her quiet agony; she shook her head and blinked repeatedly to set her mind on the current situation, looking confused at her male partner, who didn't returned the gesture and maintained silence.

"We're not giving up Spartan, I have a new mission for you: Is your job to get Cortana off the ship, keep her safe from the enemy, if they capture her, they'll know everything: Forces deployment, weapons research… Earth…"

"But what about you sir?" Anna inquired, ignoring the commands "What about everyone else in the Autumn?" She was a bit saddened by now.

Keyes placed his pipe between his lips anew, turning his gaze towards the big screen he had in front of him.

"The object we found: I'm gonna' try landing the Autumn on it"

"Psst! Wha-what object?" The redhead asked in a whisper to the green spartan beside her.

"Quiet" Was the cutting response from Master Chief, eliciting Anna to pout and stick out her tongue in direction to him, he barely noticed that she was still there.

"Cortana: I need you to set ready every evac capsule in this ship, mark a selection of emergency landing zones in the structure and then prepare yourself for transfer" The captain had spoke: The order was clear.

"Is done, sir" The A.I. said "The Autumn will continue with evasive maneuvers until you initiate the landing sequence"

"Excellent work Cortana, thank you" Keyes concluded, and with that the female holographic silhouette disappeared of above the pedestal, then the captain approached, pressing an elaborated button sequence and extracting some sort of chip from it.

"The fate of humanity rests in your shoulders, Spartans" He delivered the small device to Master Chief; Anna just stared speechless "I trust in you to keep Cortana away from the enemy, after all… She has chosen you two specifically for the matter…"

The last sentence awoke a series of memories on the redhead's mind: A remind of the voices haunting her, related to the unanswered doubts from her previous missions… she disposed to solve them all right now, regardless of the current hurry… to see if that could calm the ghosts of her past failures…

"I understand" The green Spartan took the chip and inserted it in one slot at the rear of his helmet.

"Anna: From now on you will watch Master Chief's back" The captain's words served to drag Anna out of her trance "You will be his support, if he falls: Is your task to continue from where he left it"

"Like a babysitter?" Asked the strawberry blonde, half-closing her eyes and tilting her head in misunderstanding; the golden visor of Master Chief's helmet threw at her a disbelieving stare.

"More like someone from who you can learn one thing or two" Keyes responded, cocking an eyebrow "I'm sure that two spartans lwatching each other's backs can handle anything you get encounter with"

"We won't disappoint you, sir" Anna moved her hand up to her forehead in a military salute.

"I know you won't" The captain and Master Chief imitated the gesture "Good luck Spartans…"

Keyes placed his hands behind his back again… and suddenly brought at sight two magnums.

"I don't keep 'em loaded, you'll have to find ammo on your go" Anna and Master Chief took one gun for each other, unlocking its safety lock "Now get out of here!"

"Let's go" Said the green Spartan huskily to his female companion, beginning his approach towards the bridge's exit; Anna was about to join him but right before she stepped out of the room something held her back, then she stopped dead on her track and turned on the opposite direction.

There was something else she had to know before leaving the Autumn…

"Uh… Ca-captain?" She called in low voice, walking closer to Keyes, who attended without hesitation or words.

"You-umm… Do you-Do you have any news about Reach?" The strawberry blonde scratched the back of her neck nervously; she needed to know what had been of the place she used to name 'home', what happened to all the people in the planet after the covenant's invasion, but most of all: What had been of her previous partner: Noble six.

The captain sighed deeply and placed a hand on the redhead's shoulder in front of him.

"Anna…" Keyes began "We have lost every contact with Reach… I'm sorry…" Anna's world dropped and shattered into one thousand pieces after the sentence, the last shine of hope in her sapphire eyes vanished completely, a lonely tear fell to the ground.

"You had friends there?" He asked, attempting to provide comfort.

"Just my… My family… My home…" Anna barely whispered, she had her gaze lost in one corner of the bridge.

"Like all of us… None of them will be forgotten…" Keyes completed, the saddened strawberry blonde nodded and parted from his side, getting out of the room with heavy steps.

She arrived to another white and gray hallway with damaged walls from plasma shots: Master Chief was waiting outside; the light alarms were still flashing and sounding all over the place; three dead unggoys and a sangheili were lying on the floor, along with a few corpses belonging to gray-armored marines.

"You didn't had to wait for me" Anna said, wiping the trails of tears from her eyelids, slowly recovering from her depression.

"You didn't had to stay" The green Spartan replied as cold as he's ever been with her "Come on, we're short of time…"

"Hey! If we're gonna' do this together: You really should start being much nicer to me!" The strawberry blonde demanded, her eyebrows gathered in an upset frown and her finger pointed at her male partner in an authoritarian manner.

"You want me to talk? I won't…" Master Chief kept advancing through the corridor, not giving any kind of importance to the redhead's anger.

For this point Anna was very indignant and angry, she chewed her bottom lip to suppress the urge of yelling an obscenity to the green spartan; her soul was still hurt, she doesn't need any of this, but for the sake of the mission she had to restrain herself and swallow her pride; she simply took a deep breath for calming herself and began to walk after her partner; there were much more important things to worry about.

'_Okay, now he's starting to piss me off…'_

* * *

"They've got the elite! RUN! NGAH-" Exclaimed the last of the golden-shelled unggoys before falling dead with a hole on its small blue-haired head from where it poured an also blue blood cascade which covered a big portion of the steel ground.

"Man, I hate killing the grunts" Murmured Anna with a disgusted expression on her face; her trembling magnum still pointed at the lifeless alien "It's like stepping on a kitten… All clear! That was the last one!" She yelled at the absence of enemies within the white hallway she was standing on.

Master Chief emerged from the darkness behind the strawberry blonde; joining shortly later.

After a long journey through every corridor of The Pillar Of Autumn, full with covenant troops, exhaustive firefights and fallen mates: The two spartans arrived to the ship's evac-capsules station, their only chance to escape the slaughter since the cruiser was crippled and collapsing under the overwhelming enemy fire.

It was only a matter of time before the Autumn was completely destroyed; fortunately on the release bridge, between red-painted walls: There was one last evac-capsule left, with its gates opened and few marines already waiting for launch; with all the intruders dead: There was nothing to impede the way out.

"Now would be a very good time to leave!" Cortana said inside Master Chief's helmet.

"Move!" He seconded the A.I.'s thought, nearly in a scowl at the redhead when several pieces of rubble belonging to the gray and steel walls surrounding them jumped in all directions due to the big and numerous explosions in the hull.

"Sure, I'm not deaf, geez…" Anna abandoned her shooting stance and saved her magnum on the side of her thigh, facing the green spartan as she did.

(BOOOM!) Another turbulent movement tilted the floor as huge metal fragments from the ceilings flew to the air, followed by bursting flames and black smoke that hardened in large degree visibility and breathing.

"Owff!" Anna and Master Chief placed their hands in front of them to cushion the crash of their bodies against the wall, caused by the ground's unbalance; both spartans exchanged worried looks, acknowledging the hurry, then, as soon as they recovered: The two spartans jumped off the smooth expanse of iron upon them, heading towards the evac-capsule with hastened steps.

"Ah! Shit! My nose!" Before reaching the space life-boat's gates: The strawberry blonde tripped with one of the many alien corpses resting on the ground, creating a loud echo when her armor hit the cold steel.

Instead of getting up quickly as she should've done: The redhead remained facing the floor, placing her hands on top of her head for protection while even more explosions thundered above her.

"Oh no no no, I have to whooaaah!-" Unexpectedly Anna felt herself being lifted off the ground by an unknown force and thrown into the safeness of the capsule; she instinctively turned, sitting to find the Master Chief standing forwards her, offering her a hand.

"T-th-thanks…" She stuttered with a tiny smirk as a deep blush began to spread over her round, freckled cheeks; she took the gloved palm hovering before her nose and stood up again with help of her male partner, earning a slight nod from him.

Anna sighed in relief and took the moment to observe the interior of the small cabin in which she was: The near-complete darkness was offset by a single red light on the roof, two rows of seats occupied by marines were placed on each side of the capsule, along with the pilot's seat at the back.

Slowly the enthusiasm returned to her being: The redhead was glad and grateful that there were more survivors further her and the green spartan.

"Punch it" Ordered Master Chief as he pressed a button on the wall that shut the capsule's doors behind him.

"Aye, sir!" Replied the pilot from the bottom, then the capsule trembled momently, indicating that it has been released off the Autumn and began its course on outer-space.

"Geez, so many quakes are making my stomach angry…" Anna placed a hand on Master Chief's shoulder for supporting herself and rubbed her belly with the other in clear symptoms of dizziness, she wasn't feeling alright.

"We're going to make it, are we?" The sudden question of a worried marine served to drag the attention of the two Spartans beside him; they stared at each other briefly, as if not knowing how to answer, they returned to the nameless man "I don't wanna' die out here…"

"Oh don't worry soldier, everything will be fine, I promise you…" Filled with concern: The strawberry blonde reached for the marine's shoulder, patting on it gently, her sapphire-blue eyes shining with a happiness she thought lost long time ago; the marine smiled lightly at her in trust, and she returned the welcoming gesture.

Another thing to feel glad: Anna saw some of herself in this private; it was relieving to know that not every man in the U.N.S.C. was a selfish pig, it reminded her the reason why she hadn't give up on this war, she yearned to see a better tomorrow, a better place to call home where no kid could loss what was taken away from her.

There was still hope for a better world… Hope for seeing her family once again…

"Look!" Cortana called inside Master Chief's helmet, he acknowledged instantly and started walking deeper towards the pilot's seat, leading to the capsule's window that showed the cosmos.

Anna, curious by her mate's actions: followed him with clumsy steps to gather with him… her eyes grew as wide as humanly possible and her jaw fell to the ground when she looked at what he was looking…

"Holy-Mother-Of All-Holy-SHIT!" Anna had seen incredible things through the course of her military career: Distant worlds beyond the stars in the sky, gravity-defying buildings; some of them even made her believe that magic was real.

However… None of them… Nothing, not even the most dangerous battles of her previous missions prepared the redhead for what she was witnessing as the evac-capsule continued approaching.

Anna rubbed her eyes in disbelief, then opened them again as wide as plates in exorbitant wonder at the image of a colossal ring, made completely of steel, with the diameter of an entire world floating on its own across the galaxy; on its interior seemed to be sheltering huge land extensions, lakes and oceans of all sizes with clouds forming above.

An artificial biosphere, housed in a gigantic halo of unknown origin or purpose…

And they were heading straight to it…

"WHAT IN THE SNOW QUEEN'S SAKE IS THAT!?" Anna exclaimed, practically yelling, still refusing to buy what her sight was showing to her.

"The snow queen?" Replied calmly the pilot "Don't know Spartan, but we're landing on it"

"So that's the object the captain was talking about…"

(FWHOOOM) Surprisingly the capsule began to tremble in turbulence, Anna and Master Chief walked with difficulty towards the capsule's rear to see what was the disturbing about… their eyes were greeted with another jaw-breaking scene…

"The Autumn is disacelerating! Keyes is going on manual!" As Cortana said: The enormous flying continent known as The Pillar of Autumn was passing, no, falling right above the heads of everyone within the evac-capsule, still receiving plasma impacts from enemy ships.

Big crevices the cruiser's rectangular shell threatened with splattering in half, from them emanated industrial quantities of smoke and flames.

"Head's up everyone!" Yelled the pilot, dragging everyone's attention "We're entering on the ring's atmosphere in five!"

"Five, four, three! TWO! ONE! Hold me please!" Anna counted the seconds, her voice tone rising with each number, she clamped herself around the green spartan's arm, shutting tightly her eyes in pure frighten, mentally preparing for what she thought it was a certain death. the capsule's interior started warming at alarming speed.

"Don't get any funny ideas…" Master Chief on the other hand simply took a hold on a safety handler hanging on the roof; somehow he remained calm and focused, unlike the redhead beside him devouring her fingernails.

"You sure you don't wanna' have a seat!?" Asked the strawberry blonde, tightening her grip on the armored bicep of the taller spartan, looking upwards to the golden visor of his helmet, facing her own anxious expression on it.

"We'll be fine…" Replied Master Chief, still unusually serene.

The capsule's interior started to shake uncontrollably, resembling to an earthquake; the environment suddenly beginning to get warmer and redder at an alarming rhythm, the obscure space outside the windows being subtly replaced by a layer of cerulean blue.

"THIS IS NOT GOING TO END WELL!"

"If I still had fingers they'll be crossed!" Cortana said on Master Chief's helmet, who was steady and prepared for everything, Anna still clamped on his arm, clenching her teeth and still refusing to separe her eyelids, her body as tight as rock: This was it…

Then everything just turned blank…

* * *

**-MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor Mark V: **It was the fifth of seven versions of the MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armors. The suit was issued to the members of Noble Team on November 24, 2551 and was in service until October, 2552, when it was replaced by the Mark VI. On its final stage: The Mark V weighed half a ton (1,000 pounds) and its components posses a helmet, titanium outer shell, a hydrostatic gel layer and energy shields, also compatible with A.I. support.

**-Unggoy: **Also known as "Grunts", is a species of squat-bipedal vertebrates in the unified races of the Covenant Empire. They walk both bipedally and with the aid of their oversized forearms in a manner similar to a chimpanzee. Their bodies are armored with a hard exoskeleton, much like crabs and insects. Their mouths have a set of small, pointed teeth, much like reptiles. Unggoy are on average about five feet tall and are relatively weak compared to other species. Although they can easily walk upright on two legs, they may often use their arms to move in a quadrupedal way.


	8. Halo

_-'Hey, you know what happened to that moron? Evil maker or something?'_

_-'Yeah, the fucker hasn't updated in ages, what the hell?'_

_-'Oh wait, could it be? He finally has updated! … Oh fuck, it's another filler chapter…_

_-'Fuck that bastard, let's go watch porn'_

That's right: I'm back, after what could be, with valid reasons, considered as a fuckin' eternity; I wanted to upload this freackin' months ago, but it seemed like destiny didn't wanted it that way (hah, bungie's game joke, got it? lol); there is a lot of shit happening in my life right now, as some of you already know, but you are no guilty for that, thus allow me to express my most sincere apologies since this personal issues of mine prevented me from doing this chapter.

I won't lie, I'm feeling better now, thanks to your good wishes, but my depression is still interfering with my life, perhaps I will retire from writing for a while, at least until I put myself together, so that's why I bring the longest chapter I've ever written, trust me: This little fucker has weeks of work behind, it was erased and rewritten more times than I can remember, but I'm proud with the result, and I hope you like it, after all I did it specially for you, because your support is the fuel of my humble creativity and will to continue with this, I want you to know that and never forget it: You made this, this is for you, you and only you make this possible, it wouldn't exist otherwise.

So, with nothing more I leave with my biggest work and probably my last entry in a long time, is not a goodbye, just a farewell, until I resolve my life and reach the potential to deliver you the best of the best, and there are more projects to come in several formats, only later…

It makes me really happy to upload this one day before the world premiere of Halo 5: Guardians; if fate is benevolent, I will come across you guys in Warzone, until then, farewell and may the divines smile at you all, thank you sincerely for all the support, please leave a review and feel free to send me a private message with your thoughts, I tried a lot of new things here, perhaps a little too experimental but the judges are you, not me.

I wish you the best, in time we'll meet again…

Evil Maker, out…

* * *

**Spartan Anna-151**

**Episode VIII: **

**Halo**

* * *

Far away in the horizon, contrasting with the cerulean blue of the firmament, arose a shining silver spark, that seemed to grow its size and incandescence with each passing second, to the point of becoming the only visible celestial body in the sky.

"We're coming in too fast! Damn! LOSING CONTROL!" The mysterious glow sparkling in the empyrean resulted to be a fire ball, blindingly illuminating its descent to the grass, leaving behind a long smoke stele.

"PREPARE FOR IMPACT!"

_**THRRRRRROOOOOOOOOMMMMM!**_

Dust, rocks and pasture flew in all directions as the burning steel capsule reached its inevitable outcome, with black fume rising from the rusted land to mix up with the clouds in the atmosphere.

Minutes… Hours elapsed before the first sign of life was made present.

"Chief! Chief! Can you hear me?" It took long for the Spartan to recognize that voice and gain some consciousness, a thick whitish haze filled his sight, which began to fade after few heavy blinkings.

With his vision clear: Master Chief kneeled on the ground, shook his head and reincorporated to the scenario, wielding again his assault rifle, which somehow remained in his palm, despite the chaos of the forced landing.

"At last! Are you alright? Can you move?" Cortana called once more, a bit worried about the absence of a response, even when she knew that John was from the quiet-kind of person.

"I'm fine…" Replied Master Chief, disguising his fatigue and soreness, although his armor took most of the impact.

With that matter solved: The green Spartan looked at his surroundings… What he found awoke a strong mix of anger, disappointment and powerlessness within him, tightening his grip on the handle of his gun.

"The others…"

Nobody else survived: At first Master Chief didn't noticed the huge blood stains spread all over the cabin's interior; half of the seats were empty, and the other half was occupied by either more crimson smudges or by lifeless bodies of good soldiers, good men that not so long ago were alive, thinking that they just had cheated death.

Then the spartan recognized the marine that spoke to him and Anna right after they left the Autumn: The one afraid of dying during the evacuation; on the moment where he gave him hope…

And now there he was, with his neck broken, a fearful look graven on his face for the rest of the eternity and trails of blood pouring down from his hanging jaw.

"There's nothing we can do" Murmured Master Chief, approaching to the corpse of the nameless marine, closing his eyes in a sign of respect and compassion. _Now he's able to rest properly…_

"Chief?" Master Chief kept his head down, unwittingly ignoring Cortana as he continued with his reverence "Where is-"

"_**LET IT GO! **__Go… go…" _Before the question could be finished: A strong shout was heard outside the capsule, along with its respective echo in the air that repeated the same confusing sentence at least three more times.

"Still with us, it seems…" The green spartan walked towards the capsule's opened gates; mighty sunbeams from outside hid for brief seconds the appearance of the world they just landed in.

Master Chief came out of the life-boat, his eyes finally adjusting to the environment's luminescence…

What he met in that moment… Was something beyond words… A sight that defied his perception of reality…

The super soldier stared in silence and awe to a vast green prairie with tall trees scattered over the terrain; the place was located at the bottom of a huge rocky valley of blue mountains; an extensive creek dividing the ground in two noticeable portions.

Then Master Chief looked down at his feet: A large dirt road followed the capsule's landing path; the nearby grass was practically carbonized, still emanating smoke, and yes: The green spartan found more dead marines in puddles of their own blood, along with a bunch of rifles, pistols and their respective ammunition clips spread over the pasture.

Master Chief gazed up once again, even when the sun was fully present and the sky was deep cerulean: He was able to see remote stars and constellations painting the unclouded firmament.

And as if everything aforementioned wasn't enough: The super soldier noticed in the distance how a huge tract of land curved upwards in a line that seemed to encompass the entire sky at an angle of 360 degrees, connecting with the other side of the horizon behind him, resembling to the contour of a circle…

A Halo…

Master Chief wondered if he was truly recovered from the impact… perhaps his mind was playing tricks on him, perhaps he finally got insane after several years of war and loss…

The super soldier simply continued staring dumbstruck in silence at the fantasy landscape reflected on his golden visor.

"_**DO YOU WANT TO BUILD A SNOWMAN!?**__" _Another perplex shout interrupted his thoughts, roaring on the entire valley, not very far from his position; Master Chief immediately turned at the sound source.

"Anna" He said when he spotted the female spartan standing at the edge of a cliff that showed a beautiful image of an infinite sea reflecting on its surface the sunlight and an enormous red planet in the distance.

"Oh, Hi Chief!" Acknowledged cheerfully the redhead "Come here, check this out" she paused and took a deep breath, moving her hands upwards, cupping them around her mouth.

"_**FOR THE GREATER GOOD OF… CHOCOLATE!**_" With everything in her lungs, she yelled anew at the horizon, the echo of her words resounding on the mountains, provoking the strawberry blonde to giggle like a child.

"This place is amazing!" Anna began to babble eagerly "The echo in here is SO AWESOME! Also, have you seen the planets and the stars? I mean: Its day! The sky is awake and even like that there are stars and nebulas and stuff! Oh! Oh! And have you seen how-"

"Anna!" Coldly Master Chief cut off the redhead's rambling, earning a hurt look from her "How long you've been awake?" He asked, returning to his calm tone.

"Not very much actually, I tried to wake you but you didn't responded so… I thought that you were… like… you know…" Anna dropped the corners of her lips and her big sapphire eyes lost their characteristic brightness of enthusiasm.

"Nobody else made it?"

"No… only us did… I guess that's the price for being stronger than everybody else, right?" Anna paused for a moment, glaring back at the horizon, letting her sight and mind wander freely on the distance, in response to the growing sorrow of her soul.

"… I found everyone dead and… I thought that you were too and… well: I exactly didn't knew what to do, so I came here… to yell random things at the air… I heard somewhere that is therapeutic… to vent and let everything go… to see if I could come up with something… But then…"

The green spartan waited in silence for the strawberry blonde to finish, curious about the direction her relieving speech was about to take.

"Can I say something crazy?" Anna resumed after a few seconds of being quiet "All this: The war, the destruction, the fact that, no matter how hard you try… you cannot save everyone…"

She ceased again, her hands fell to her sides in defeat, turning to face the male spartan.

"I'm starting to get used to it…"

A death breeze followed the sentence; Master Chief parted his sight from the redhead, for once in his life maintaining silence against his will.

Truth be told: Despite what the green spartan could think of her: Anna was not wrong… Not so far from reality.

The marines… The Autumn… Reach… This day has been one of failures and defeats for humanity… Yet is not the first… And surely it won't be the last…

"How you do it?" A shy question, an almost inaudible whisper broke the noiseless atmosphere.

Master Chief reacted, facing a strawberry blonde girl with a hopeful, yet gloomy and saddened look on her cerulean eyes.

"Forget… Get over the death of your teammates and… well, everyone…"

Many answers to that single questioning crossed the spartan's mind, but he abstained from replying. He had no troubles to notice the innocence and honesty of Anna; her gaze still holding a gleam of hope, absent in every person he has met before in the army.

He saw through her like a crystal: Anna's intentions were always the best, clean of rancor and anger, she held no secrets at all… She just wanted to keep everybody safe, so John, not Master Chief, chose the only right answer…

Truth…

"You never forget… You just get used to it… And make their sacrifice worth…"

The redhead smiled lightly; it did not solved her doubt, it did not closed the wound in her spirit… But it helped to make the weight on her shoulders feel less painful.

"_**I FEEL PRETTY AND STUNNING AND WARM!" **_Surprisingly Anna turned back at the horizon, shouting at the four winds the first stupidity that landed on her mind; somehow managing to wipe off her sorrow and be as playful as a little girl.

"This is awesome, Chief, you really should try it" Said the female spartan with a wide smirk between chuckles.

"Awww, isn't she adorable?" Cortana shared her thoughts with the helmet.

"Maybe too much for her own well…" Sighed Master Chief, staring in amazement, disbelief and regret to the strawberry blonde at the end of the path.

This is going to be a long day…

"What the…" During a brief moment, less than a second: The sunlight was blocked, by a mysterious shadow crossing upon the spartan's head.

Their gazes pointed up to the sky, almost simultaneously, to realize that the brilliant, distant star now had a companion, orbiting around the valley.

"Get to cover!" Right after the sentence was pronounced: Master Chief practically flied across the meadow, hiding behind a huge rock among the trees.

Anna, without thinking it twice: Left the cliff and clumsily ran uphill to gather with her partner at the grove, jumping onto a shrub, close to the green Spartan.

The two of them cautiously peeking out from the safety of their hideout, towards their unknown pursuer, carefully enough to not draw its attention.

"Warning, I've detected multiple covenant dropships on approach, they must be looking for survivors" Cortana finally spoke after a while of not participating.

A death stare from the green Spartan immediately fell upon the strawberry blonde, as if this somehow was her fault… Which could be since she's been practically shouting their position for god knows how long…

"Oopsy?" Was everything the super soldier earned from the redhead, who kept smiling with her usually pale, freckled face as red as her armor.

"I recommend immediate evasion by moving into those hills, if we're lucky the covenant will believe that everyone in this life-boat died in the crash" Master Chief followed with his gaze, a distant knoll from where the water flowed, at the other side of the horizon: That would be their next objective.

"Don't fall behind" Said the Spartan as soon as he spotted a safe distance between them and the phantom overflying the crash location; with no more words, he left his cover with quick but cautious steps.

"Where are we going?" Master Chief barely noticed Anna behind, following him quite closely.

"Anywhere but here" Was his short and cold reply, not bothering to look back as he continued walking.

"That… Doesn't exactly answer my question" Said the redhead, having difficulties to equal her partner's rhythm.

"_**RUN, COWARD! LIKE YOU ALWAYS DO!" **_The phantasmal voice that was haunting Anna since she was aboard the Autumn replaced whatever that came out of the green spartan's mouth, refusing to be forgotten; her head began to sting and her vision to blur, she could feel blood already pouring down from her nose.

"Ow, uhh… Excuse me? What did you said?" Now she was glad that she was falling behind, yet a little ashamed to ask, it gave her time to shook away the disturbance and set her mind on reality without having to answer uncomfortable questions.

"Our entire platoon is down" Master Chief stopped death on his track, turning exasperated to silence the girl's doubts "The covenant is all over us on this unknown terrains, we must do some recon, look out for survivors"

Anna said nothing in response and stood still as a rock before the green Spartan, afraid of even breathe under his glare.

"Happy?"

The redhead nodded repeatedly, then again without emitting any sound.

"Good, stay close and keep your head down… And your voice too…" With that Master Chief resumed his walk, and so did Anna, maintaining some distance between each other.

"That was close…" The redhead exhaled in relief.

"_Is not that easy…" _Another whisper in the air threatened her sanity.

"I'm not listening!" Anna replied on her mind, closing tightly her eyes, intending to disempower influence and importance from the Ghost of Reach, and contradictorily worrying, fearing about the newly acquired frequency of her deliriums.

"_What is happening to me?"_

"Overall your voice…" The green Spartan said to himself, but the strawberry blonde heard loud and clear, eliciting her to get mad… Really mad.

But he didn't care.

"Hey! If you have something to tell me, I'm right here" Anna hastened her steps to catch up with her partner, truly decided to confront him once in for all, to the point that she practically ignored the fact that they were crossing a small bronze bridge over a cascade and a seemingly infinite fall to the nothing.

"I mean: I'm not stupid-"

"You don't?" Master Chief interrupted her sarcastically.

"Hey! You're not even trying!" Anna was about to swear, most of her blood was on her cheeks boiling due to her repressed anger "Why don't we start again?" She breathed for calming herself.

"Negative" The green spartan wasn't doing it any easier.

"I mean, we could get to know each other on the way"

"Didn't you had enough with revealing our location to the enemy?"

"Hey, that's rude! How was I to know!?"

"No games, no talking, we have a task to do…"

As if to emphasize Master Chief's order: From behind the mountains surrounding the valley, a pair of banshees appeared, circling the area like vultures around a decaying corpse; at first the ships didn't noticed them, but for how long the Spartans would go unseen?

They surely had no urge to know.

Short time passed until the super soldiers faded in the horizon; for that point: The phantom had already settled over the capsule's landing zone, its gates opened, allowing numerous unggoys, kig-yars and sangheilis to disembark and plunder the last resting place of the Autumn's survivors.

The conversation kept flowing during the errant path of both spartans across this unknown lands, this ring world full of questions and secrets awaiting to be discovered.

* * *

In the moment when Rapunzel decided to join the army, she did it with the intention of helping to finish the insurrection.

From her very same birth: Rapunzel has known only conflict and loss, since her father died during one of the many confrontations between the U.N.S.C. against the rebel colonists, leaving her and her mother by themselves.

So a promise was made: When Rapunzel finally reached the proper age, she would enlist in the army, to help as many as she could; with the idea of collecting and delivering supplies for collateral victims of the civil war, treat and take care of the wounded, providing any kind of humanitarian aid for those like her, so less people would suffer, casualties would be lower and tragedy would be rarer.

At last the day came…

Her solicitude was approved, her dream was about to come true!

And what the U.N.S.C. did?

They gave her a rifle and sent her away from her home, to a military base where she would be trained to do the exact opposite of what she was intended to do; Rapunzel was forced to fight someone else's war, against people like her that she learned to hate for reasons she didn't understand.

Everything was crumbling apart, it was quite different than when she was a victim.

Now, directly or indirectly: She was the injustice; Rapunzel was abhorred only by the uniform she wore, no mattering if she always had the best intentions, to the eyes of the world she just was a puppet of the government, without free will, without restrains or mercy.

Without feelings…

But she didn't gave up…

She never lost hope: The path has changed, but the goal was the same.

Regardless of the situation, Rapunzel risked everything to help anyone who needed it, whether they were on her team or the contrary: She always saw for others before herself.

From refusing to fire her weapon, passing through sharing her last ammunition clips and supplies with her partners, taking the first step on unknown enemy territory to even acting as human shield.

Her bravery and solidarity turned her into a legend among her equals, saving uncountable lives: Rapunzel wasn't a soldier, she stopped fighting, she wasn't on the government's side, nor the insurrection's.

She was on her side.

She became a survivor.

Hoping that one day, disparity would be over, hatreds forgotten and alliances forged; she finally would be able to return home, delivering to her mother and her deceased father something they don't know, yet they yearn for with every fiber of their beings.

Peace.

That was her dream, to be with her family in the end.

That renewed her hopes.

Only to be crushed once again…

With the arrival of a new enemy, fiercer and unsparing.

Which take us to the present: Where Rapunzel is separated from everything she knew to face something way greater than her; starting when her transport to home was brought down from heaven, after fighting a lost battle, landing on a surreal place, with most of her teammates fallen, resisting against what seemed to be the very same hell minions.

The world was trembling around her, Rapunzel was sprinting across the meadow as fast as her sore and tired legs allowed her; dust, rock and pasture jumped in her surroundings due to numerous plasma projectiles flying towards her, impacting on the ground in a failed-by-little intent of taking her down, hindering her escape.

(BANG!) (BANG!) (THROOM!) (BOOOM!)

War cries, thundering roars and the deafening metallic noises of clashing armor plates filled the blonde's ears during her run, a few loose strands of golden hair hanging in front of her face blurred her vision.

It was difficult for her to keep the pace, zigzagging among U.N.S.C. and covenant soldiers alike with never-ending bullets breaking the sound's barrier practically at her side, wielding her assault rifle with one arm and carrying her fainted partner with the other like an anchor, exponentially lowering their surviving likelihood.

And yet she refused to leave him…

(BANG!)

"ARGH! Dang it!" Suddenly a single shot, a stray projectile landed on her left shoulder; Rapunzel ceased her sprint, forced onto one knee, nearly falling due to the impact force and the consequent pain product of it.

The weight of her partner and herself was too much, she couldn't get up, she knew she had to keep going.

The world continued rotating without her: Bullet passed through the air, rocks and pasture bouncing by whim of the explosions, fierce shouts of rage and sorrow filled the atmosphere, human and alien bodies falling dead onto the ground; she almost could see it in slow motion…

Still kneeling on the grass: Rapunzel glanced down at her wound, wincing: Her shoulder plate was gone, being replaced by her exposed, pink, living tissues peeking out from a black-contoured hole in her burned skin; she turned away disgusted, wanting to cover the injury with her free hand, but her body lacked of energies for even that simple task.

"_Leave me be…" _She nearly forgot; a gentle, almost inaudible whisper brushed her right ear; the blonde turned: Her partner was still counting on her, however, the words she thought hearing confused her, so she waited for another sentence.

"Save yourself… I'm just a burden now…" Cooed the dying soldier on her back, without moving; Rapunzel couldn't believe it: Something within her just broke; Her lips pursed as her green emerald-like eyes grew watery in the most innocent sample of sadness known by all.

_He's right…_ And part of her agreed; after all: They've already lost an entire world; the Autumn doomed, lying destroyed somewhere else, or floating aimlessly towards the oblivion of the space's blackness, along with humanity's last chances to prosper…

From her platoon, initially composed by approximately thirty soldiers… Just a bunch of them outlived the escape and the emergency landing… Only to face deadlier odds in strange territories, making of them even less…

Could all this be mere chance? Perhaps an omen? Maybe fate had no more purpose for them and so, the course of nature was solely trying to claim its property, to give peace for brave souls which time have long passed…

It was all so clear, and Rapunzel simply couldn't keep ignoring the signals…

After several days of being shot, without proper sleep or an adequate meal: A short rest wasn't too much for ask.

Perhaps she just had to close her eyes… And let nature follow its course…

But then… Out of nowhere, her saddened stare turned into a frown, and so, with the strength of an army: The female soldier stood up again, resuming her race towards deliverance.

'_No!'_

She said 'No!' to her partner and her own weakened legs.

She said 'No!' to the enemy and its unceasing fire.

She said 'No!' to destiny and its pessimistic odds.

Fueled by her infinite will: The blonde made her way through the fire and flames, not letting herself being bothered by the foe's presence or its murderous intents of stopping her.

Bullets continued flying in all directions, grenades continued exploding and the world's trembling didn't came to an end.

However: Rapunzel never doubted, never flinched for a second, under any circumstances; she just kept running… No matter what…

She was so close now…

Suddenly she stopped dead on her track, just for a moment, right in the middle of the firefight, panting and sweating, looking desperately for a safe place as rubbles bounced in her surroundings.

Then, her sight found the remains of her platoon: Her superior and another marine among the rocks at the other side of the valley, providing covering fire for more soldiers in the battlefield.

The perfect shelter from the enemy… And she only had to keep running for a bit longer…

Rapunzel smiled with a nearly inaudible gasp, a little flame of hope lit within her soul…

Nonetheless, that vision wasn't fully spiced with sugar and candy since she realized that, to get there, she would have to cross another line of fire, upholstered with the blood and corpses of her fallen team members.

It was suicide.

The blonde stood still in her place, wondering if she could do it…

Despite her strong will to live, her body lacked of enough strength, she hasn't slept properly in days, and let's not talk about having a suitable meal; she knew she had to, but any mistake, however small this could be, involved the waste of her efforts, along with the death of her mate and herself.

The loss of her dream…

But she refused to let fear overcome her yearnings again: The female soldier shook away all negative thoughts.

And started another race…

Clinging to her last hopes…

Evading, lashing against each and every obstacle in her way, flatly denying the idea of failure, with the same determination of moments ago; all dangers and enemies around her suddenly became so, so insignificant; her legs and heart were tireless, she knew she would be properly rewarded … Soon…

The blonde secured her grip on the dying marine in her back, only a few meters away from her objective, from prospering despite all unfavorable odds; she smiled widely, her eyes lightened up with infinite joy; time seemed to run slower for that brief instant.

'_Just a little longer, almost nothing…'_

**(KA-TRRRHOOOM!)**

Unexpectedly… Rapunzel was catapulted off the ground; her body floated gracefully on the air for many seconds lapsing in a slower motion, to the point of resembling hours.

During her short, upside-down flight: The blonde watched in calm the world around her, starting when her assault rifle escaped from her palm, passing through the spectacle of blue smoke, lightnings and rubbles rising beneath her, to the sight of her soldier comrades in the distance, being slaughtered by the covenant forces…

Then she placed her eyes on her partner: The one for she risked so much to save, parting from her side, as she uselessly stretched her hand to reach him… but he kept moving away… Just as she did…

_**(THRUM!)**_

Finally her being reconnected with the earth, abruptly dragged by gravity; The female soldier landed with her nape on the hard soil, her spine contracting beyond human limits due to her own weight; she violently rolled on the pasture like a ragdoll repeatedly before the explosion's force fully dispelled.

Weakened and bemused: Rapunzel stared loosely at the sky, lying still on the grass; it was everything she could do; she was virtually knocked out and near to blackout; the grenade almost tore her legs off.

For a brief instant she lost consciousness, forgetting for merely seconds about the chaos of the firefight, about who she was and what she was doing, lacking of time and space notion, as if her brain stopped working.

With her remaining energies: The blonde carefully tilted her head, wincing at the torture that her injured neck produced on her.

Nothing has changed… They were still losing…

Rapunzel's eyes only met blurry black smudges contrasting with incandescent lights burning her pupils; her ruptured tympanums filled with a deafening, long-lasting buzzing, along with muffled echoes of the battlefield.

She did her best to focus her vision, but to no avail, and so she tried to move her arms for crawling at least, she centered all her concentration on getting up again, however, her limbs never reacted…

She wanted to scream, she made a great effort to scream, nonetheless: From the bottom of her throat, from the top of her lungs only escaped a soft breathing; her brain continued refusing to obey.

But it didn't mattered: She felt so light... So peaceful... The female soldier wondered if she finally reached that point where your mind disconnect you from your body to save you a lot of pain, but to the cost of becoming he personification of dead weight.

'_Heh, this is it, right?' _Said Rapunzel to her inner self, unable to move a muscle, finally willing to embrace her fate; She stared above to the sun, struggling to keep her half-lidded eyes open; the king of the stars stood out over the deep cerulean in the sky, illuminating with its warm brilliance her ascent to the divine beyond…

Which then was suddenly darkened…

By an unknown tall figure, slowly approaching to her with thunderous steps…

With nothing she could do about it…

"NGHAH-!" Four black fingers fell upon her, violently wrapping tight around her thin neck, suffocating her, silencing whatever the female soldier was about to say…

Then, with superhuman strength: She was raised from the ground, where the she could appreciate clearly her captor, an elite, cladded in crimson armor, lifting and shaking her like a mere flag in a victorious-taunting motion.

Driven by the lack of oxygen: Rapunzel brought one fist upwards, slamming it repeatedly against the alien arm capturing her, trying to escape the asphyxiating grip.

With no use since she, even in her finest shape, wasn't a match for a member of the covenant's army, much less now that she was in need of food, sleep and health care.

The elite growled, in what seemed to be a mock on a strange tongue, in face of the desperate attempts of the human to survive; the sangheili tightened the grip on the blonde's throat, just the enough for torturing without killing; Rapunzel began to suffer of tunnel vision, her neck still aching from her previous fall; yet she refused to show weakness.

The beast waved its free arm, and so the female soldier contemplated doe-eyed how, from thin air: an energy sword materialized, shining with a purple glow as majestic as threatening, signalizing the finale of their unbalanced confrontation.

The plasma blade rose, aiming directly towards her; Rapunzel couldn't decide if glare at either the sharp edges of the sword, or back to the elite's black orbs staring at her soul…

She laughed… She smiled and closed her eyes, wishing the quickest, painless death...

'_Sorry mother… I failed…'_

The blade slowly went backwards, earning extra impulse; Rapunzel clenched her teeth and tightened her body, preparing rejoin with her father…

The sword catapulted forward…

**BANG!**

"RGARH-"

After the shot was heard: Two bodies fell to the ground at unison; the blonde could finally breathe anew, a sweet solace that calmed slightly the pain of her spine hitting the cold grass once again.

With her remaining energies: The first thing Rapunzel did was push herself up on her elbows, and to her sight came the massive body of the crimson-armored elite, the one who just a few seconds ago was about to become her reaper, lifeless on the ground, still convulsing; She stared at the alien with confusion as she slowly crawled afar of it, trying to escape while the firefight's chaos still threatened her arguably well-being.

"Got her, going back!" And before she could react: The female soldier felt herself being lifted off the soil, carried away from the battlefield; she no longer had the strength to fight back or even protest, so she simply looked upwards to identify her savior: It was a marine, belonging to the remains of her platoon, relighting the little flame of hope in her heart.

Rapunzel wanted to say 'Thank you', never so sincerely in her life, but right now her body had given everything; she just limited to smile, closing her eyes in relief, enjoying the small moment of much needed rest that meant her rescue.

At the end of a brief sprint: Both soldiers arrived to the other side of the valley, inhabited by a conglomeration of huge stones that worked as cover from the enemy.

The marine kneeled, carefully placing the exhausted blonde on the ground, with her back facing the rock so she could sit properly; Rapunzel lifted her gaze wearily, glancing around, realizing about their odds…

Among the rocks: Only she and two men of her platoon remained, the rest either died during the Autumn's crash or were dying right now in hands of the covenant's troops, and soon they would pass the torch to them…

"Marine, report!" Interrupting her thoughts: The third soldier came by their side.

"They're everywhere, sir, I don't think we can make it" Answered the marine.

"Did I asked for your lazy-ass opinion, marine?" Exclaimed Johnson in reply "Dear lord, can't believe the manliest of us is Flowers…" The sergeant blew some fume and threw away his cigar.

"Where's… Benjamin?" Whispered Rapunzel at the mention of her last name, in relation to the man she tried to save earlier; gazing upwards to her companions, who exchanged worried stares with each other at the question; the marine lowered and shook his head, sighing in defeat as Johnson looked back at the blonde with concern, reaching for her right shoulder, tapping it gently in comfort.

'_I see…'_ The female faced away from them, closing her eyes and pressing her lips together in a straight line, not saying a word.

"I'm sorry kid" Said softly the sergeant with his palm still in her shoulder "You did all you could…"

"Now, listen up!" Johnson resumed after a minute of respectful silence, starting to trace various figures with the barrel of his magnum on the dust beneath his feet; the two soldiers under his charge looked at him with curiosity, leaning closer, the three of them forming a circle "This is the plan…"

(BANG!)

"NO!" Out of sudden the female soldier cried when a strong plasma blast flied across the rocks, landing between the nameless marine's eyes before anything could be done, thrusting his head against the stone behind him due to the projectile's airspeed.

(BANG!) (BANG!) (BANG!) Without even taking a look first: Johnson pushed back Rapunzel out of sight, wielded his weapon and shot three times at his rearguard, the third bullet impacting critically a sniper Jackal standing on a distant hill, falling dead to the valley's bottom.

"Alright, new plan!" The sergeant turned, reloading his gun and facing the female soldier, who remained aghast, with her spine pressed against the rock and a black-gloved hand covering her mouth, staring in shock at her mate's corpse, still convulsing and even coughing; some blood drops landed on the blonde's fair, lightly freckled face.

Rapunzel's gaze remained upon the dead marine, expressionless for several seconds, but at some point her green-emerald eyes became crystalline.

"Hey, hey, Flowers, look at me…" In concern: Johnson moved his hands towards the blonde's cheeks, tapping them slightly, forcing her to stare back at him; a small tear fell to the earth.

"Listen: I know is tough" Began the sergeant, looking at Rapunzel straight in the eye "But I need you to keep yourself together! This is not your fault, you hear me? You want to repay Benjamin? Then listen: If those nasty sons of a bitch really want a piece of us that much, then they'll have to get the full package, the only thing those fuckers are getting from us is a gun filling each and every hole on their deform, bastard bodies!"

The female soldier nodded feverishly, continuing wordlessly and motionless with her hand still hiding her mouth; the sergeant sighed, releasing the blonde, parting his gaze from her.

"On the lifeboat…" Johnson broke the silence, pointing beyond the rocks, where their destroyed capsule laid, emanating black smoke to the sky "There should be a beacon… Call for backup… And get out of here… I'll distract them, give them what they want…" The sergeant stood and reached for one pocket on his utility belt, bringing to sight another cigar that he led up to between his lips.

Rapunzel said nothing at first, her stare persisting blank as she tilted her head slightly, oblivious to the nature of the words that arrived to her ears.

"No!"

"Excuse me?" The sergeant stopped dead on his track, turning around surprised.

"No sir" Retorted the female soldier, rising from the soil as soon as the synapse process helped her to understand "With all due respect: There's no way you can stand alone against all those covenant, It's suicide! I cannot abandon you sir, I won't-"

"You will, it wasn't a question, soldier, that's an order…" Johnson cut off the blonde, throwing away the matchstick he used to lighten his cigar.

"I refuse! We'll have more chances if we stand our ground together"

"It ain't that easy and you know it"

"I just don't see the point of-"

"Goddammit, Flowers! This is not the time!" The sergeant spoke out, having ran out of patience "If I want you to friggin' jump, you say 'how high?', you hear me!?"

The female soldier retraced a step, intimidated, her challenging glare had dissipated; Johnson was breathing heavily due to exasperation, standing firm before the blonde with strongly-clenched fists; they remained silent, exchanging conflicted stares for several long seconds.

Then the sergeant groaned, sighing and pinching his nosebridge as he did, afterwards he looked down at the female soldier with a softened gaze, as if expecting; Rapunzel stared back with confused and hurt eyes, still refusing to say a word.

"I respect your intentions, Flowers…" Said weakly the sergeant with guilt "But fairy tales won't get us out of here… Don't let this fuckers go unharmed, Flowers…"

"I-I just..." The blonde began, wrapping her arms around her waist, fixing her glare on the ground "I don't want to fail again… I could've done more..." her voice trembled at the end, her bottom lip quivering slightly.

"We all could've..." Replied Johnson, picking up an assault rifle off the soil and throwing it at Rapunzel, who caught it clumsily with her belly before wielding it properly "Now's your chance"

She then gazed down to inspect her new weapon: It belonged to her dead partner, the one who saved her from dying in hands of an elite, the one whose blood was now splattered against the rock that became his last resting place, with a hole between his eyes…

Rapunzel wasn't comfortable with the idea of taking property of a deceased, not to mention that the rifle also had crimson smudges smeared all over its mechanisms, but she was known for seeing the brightest side of anything, even in the darkest hours… Besides… What choice did she had?

"On my count" Said the sergeant all of sudden as he took on his free hand a second magnum attached to his left thigh.

"One…" Johnson unlocked the safety lock of his weapons, Rapunzel did the same, but less sure of herself; her legs were trembling like jelly, it took a great inner effort from her to not show the large amount of fear and anxiety gnawing the courage she gained earlier, even when she was terrible at hiding her feelings.

She prayed with all her soul for anything to happen, so the sergeant and herself would be stopped from going to the slaughterhouse.

"Two…" The sergeant walked towards the other side of the rock, the blonde gulped hardly, tightening strongly her hold in her rifle, threatening with tearing it apart; she closed her eyes and breathed deeply, intending to calm her nerves, to no avail of course…

Then the longest, coldest and deadliest of all silences seized the atmosphere; Rapunzel began to sweat a cascade, she was only one step away from a heart attack.

_'THREE! COME ON! JUST SAY IT!' _She shouted in her mind.

(…)

"Wait…"

One green eye was cautiously opened: Nothing has occurred; the female soldier slowly turned on her heel to face the sergeant, who remained steady at the other side of the rock.

"They ceased fire… Why?"

It's true… The silence: It shouldn't exist.

Why would they stop the attack? When they just had them cornered and were about to finish the job.

"Something's very wrong, Flowers…" Both Johnson and Rapunzel carefully retraced over their steps, a metallic noise made them jump slightly, only to realize that they were back-to-back; eyes wandered meticulously over the terrain, fearing the worst…

Then, once again: All the sounds of the world were replaced with the soft blowing of the wind among the rocks.

"You ready?" Asked the sergeant unusually confident.

Rapunzel looked at him, shaking her head innocently.

"Heh... Me neither…

* * *

(BANG!) (BANG!) (BANG!)

(…)

One black fist rose upon the air… And the plasma storm came to an end…

Gun barrels were lowered to the ground level, unggoys and kig-yars looked back perplexed, ceasing their advance towards the stones in expectation of the next order.

When silence was primordial: Thel Vadam'ee lowered his hand, standing still, not giving importance to his subordinate's stares falling upon him; he took his time, wandering with his eyes around the valley, analyzing the vast expanse of green meadows with a terrifying calm.

He stepped forward, walking slowly amongst a sea of dead bodies, human, along with covenant's, replacing the grass dew with dripping crimson and purple stains, extending across the entire prairie; the sun illuminating majestically the sangheili's golden armor as he approached the conglomeration of giant rocks providing cover to the enemy.

The supreme commander spotted the absence of their explorer, probably killed by the remaining human forces, so numbers were now a mystery, and even when they had the upper hand: Proceeding with caution still was a priority; declaring victory prematurely with a careless offensive would lead only to unnecessary casualties.

So only one reliable option remained: The sangheili reached for one small device attached to the golden plates covering his thigh, and with one quick wave of his arm emerged from thin air an energy sword, emanating a strong blue luminescence.

Thel Vadam'ee brought his fist to the air once again, pointing the sharp end of his plasma blade towards the rocks; and then: A large group of grunts and jackals split from the rest, beginning an agonizingly slow advance towards the agglomeration of giant blue stones before them; The golden-armored elite repeated the same authoritarian motion to the opposite side of the rocks, and the remaining soldiers followed the sword's direction.

The supreme commander stayed behind momentarily, waiting for his subordinates to take the lead, and as soon as he started walking to join his forces: He stopped…

A noise, a whistle, nearly imperceptible drew the sangeili's attention, he quickly raised his sight, glancing around the entire valley, searching for the source, his eyes spotted nothing, but the strange sound continued, becoming louder and louder, closer with each passing second, to the point of deafness.

Then: It struck him, like a thunder; he finally recognized the noise…

_**VRRROOOOOOOOOOMMMM! THHRROOOOOOOMMMM!**_

The golden-armored elite barely had time to jump and roll out of the way as the gigantic piece of green steel emerged from a remote hillside, landing upon few unfortunate covenant troops, killing them in the blink of an eye when the enemy artifact connected to the ground with a thunderous roar, throwing dust, pasture and alien blood to the air as it did.

Kneeling on the grass, shaking his head to recover from the commotion: Thel Vadam'ee found himself lying before one of those human vehicles with wheels, occupied by two of them, one at the driver's cabin, and the other operating a huge turret at the rear.

"Hi!"

(RA TRA TRA TRA TRA TRA TRA!)

The multiple, elongated barrels of the human vehicle's gun began to rotate at full tilt, and immediately after: A bullet rain of a large caliber fell upon the elite commander, also impacting on the nearby pasture; dust, land, smoke and several bullet cartridges flied on all directions as Anna maintained her finger on the trigger.

The sangheili quickly rolled again, escaping from the projectile's reach, being protected by the energy shields surrounding his entire body; the elite jumped into a bunch of trees that worked as cover, however the enemy fire continued, the constant impact of bullets began to husk the trunk's rind.

Suddenly: The image of the supreme commander started to dispel, to fade, his golden armor slowly became translucent until it merged completely with the ambient.

Thel Vadam'ee enabled an active camouflage and disappeared of the scene.

"THREE O'CLOCK!" Yelled Master Chief from the driver's seat, hoping that his voice would overpass the deafening thunders provoked by the turret's continuous fire rate.

"WHAT? IT IS SO LATE ALREADY!?" Shouted Anna in response, emptying the gun's ammunition clip against the trees, unaware of the stupidity that just abandoned her mouth.

"No! Shoot There!" (BANG!) (BANG!) (BANG!) Retorted the green spartan, drawing out a magnum to obliterate some survivors trying to get away from the turmoil.

"Oh! SURE THING!" The turret's platform rotated sixty degrees, Anna opened fire against the laggards; the unggoy's escaping efforts finished with their bodies exploding in a miasma of phosphorescent blue blood and flesh; the kig-yar's energy shields were no match for the warthog's firepower, so they fell prey of nine hundred bullets in less than a minute.

"I SH-SHOULN'T-T E-E-E-NJOY T-TH-HIS!" Shouted the redhead as she kept concentrated fire upon the covenant troops, faltering on her speech due to the gun's mighty recoil "BUT WHO WANTS SOME!? I HAVE SOME FOR YOU! HOW 'BOUT YOU!?"

Some additional minutes of unceasing shooting… And the enemy was no more…

The female spartan released the trigger, and the accelerated rotation of the turret's barrels began to stop, emanating smoke from the incandescent orange muzzles; the tinkling sound of empty bullet casings falling to the ground persisted against the recent quietude of the valley.

"Whoa… Man, I love this thing" Said Anna breathless, looking beyond the gun she was operating, tapping it as if it was some kind of nice-behaving pet "That was the last one, I believe"

_(Ssssssssssssssss)_

"Uh oh…" From thin air emerged a familiar, flaming blue light, landing upon the tip of the turret's rotating barrel "ABANDON THE SHIP!"

Master Chief barely had time to acknowledge the redhead's warning; both of them jumped off the vehicle immediately after.

_**(KA-THHRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM!)**_

A mighty torment of cerulean thunders, black clouds and flames ended swallowing the warthog completely, consequently releasing a strong wind burst; the fuel tank's explosion impulsed the vehicle's now blackened bodywork five meters above the ground, sending wheels and carbonized rubbles to fly across the terrain before setting on the grass once again.

"Whoa-!" Anna squealed incoherently when a fleeting, sharp steel fragment of the warthog crossed atop her scalp, nearly decapitating her; she lowered her head in time, luckily, reducing damage to the loss of a few crimson hairs.

"That… Could've went better… Ugh…" She exhaled wearily, kneeling on the pasture with struggle; her head was spinning, her vision was blurred, filled with fuzzy lights, her eyelids felt heavy and her ears only received distorted echoes.

A black-gloved hand came to hover in front of her, she took it, not even bothering to look above, she was too tired to care.

And that same hand wrapped around her throat, violently, and then another, tightening the suffocating grip, restricting the pass of oxygen.

Anna attempted to cry in protest, but nothing left her mouth, her own palms went to clamp her aggressor's forearms, pressing with all her strength, despite the lack of air; every fatigue symptom was surpassed and forgotten in that instant.

However: The attacker seemed unaffected by her efforts of freeing herself; the redhead was forced to stare above; at first the incandescent sunlight shining from behind blinded her intentions of unveiling the aggressor's identity, prolonging the enigma, but soon the intrusive sunrays faded by whim of the mysterious one's dark silhouette interposing between her and the bright veil belonging to the king of the stars; and the sight that her eyes met stole her breath, even more than the pair of hands gripping her neck.

The female spartan was faced by a twisted version of her fallen partner: Noble six, with a spectral flame emanating from the aperture in the broken visor of his Mark V(B) helmet, cladded in a dreadful armor of smoky darkness.

Anna's heart was assaulted by a conflicted amalgam of fear, confusion, sorrow and rage; her lip quivered, she opened her mouth to speak, but, then again: nothing left her mouth; traces of tears began to appear in the corners of her eyes.

The vengeful spirit ignored the girl's suffering, tightening the grip on her throat with inhuman strength, even superior to the spartan's.

"_**YOU LEFT ME TO DIE!" **_Exclaimed the ghost of Reach with the deafening voice of a thousand phantoms _**"YOU ARE A MISTAKE! We should've never trusted you… DAMN THE DAY YOU WERE BORN! YOU WILL DOOM US ALL!"**_

The asphyxia was too much: Anna tried once more to push away the smothering grasp, focusing all her concentration and strength in the muscles of her arms, nonetheless: The aggressive specter remained immovable, and eventually she began to suffer of tunnel vision; the redhead was about to collapse; the sky above her turned blood-crimson, the world around her was obscuring, this was it…

But then… Once again… The sun interfered: A strong sunbeam overpassed the spirit's blackening presence, striking her sight, blinding her, vanishing the dark…

The shining faded, as soon as it appeared, and when the redhead's eyes adapted to the new illumination, she could breathe again… Her knees left the grass as the energies returned to her body…

After getting up completely on her own: Anna shook her head, blinking several times with her freckled face contorted in a confused expression; she took fast glances around the terrain, daylight was primordial on the valley, and the redhead found her hand clamped in Master Chief's, who was standing right before her.

"You alright, Spartan?" He inquired with his classic low and calm voice tone, clear and direct as always.

"_Was all a dream?" _The strawberry blonde girl stared blankly at her male partner, having difficulties to process the time inconsistency of events she just had witnessed; in the blink of an eye: She passed from cheating death twice with the explosion of a warthog, to be suffocated by the ghost of her dead friend in what seemed to be the hell, to then be back in reality like nothing happen, all of it in the matter of a single second.

Something was very wrong with her sanity…

"_But it felt so real... Am I getting insane?" _Anna still refused to believe that her near-death experience was only a product of her imagination; several questions related to the cause of these deliriums occupied her train of thoughts, but then she stopped them when she realized that the Master Chief continued expecting an answer, and the absence of words from her began to get quite awkward, if not suspicious.

"I-uh… Yeah, sure… Thanks…" Babbled the redhead in reply, her mind remaining slightly focused on her personal matters, raising her palm to cup her throat, releasing the green spartan's hand, who simply nodded respectfully in response, apparently oblivious to her unnatural behavior.

A sly smirk stretched Anna's lips, with a sigh of relief, being sure that her slow and silent descend to madness remained a secret, thus she gave herself the afford to forget the subject for a moment.

"God, what happened here?" Muttered in shock the female Spartan as soon as her eyes began to wander around the rocky valley they just arrived at; she met the sight of a vast prairie upholstered in its entirety with a sea of fresh dead bodies and clotted blood; human, covenant equally; several craters, along with black smudges of burned grass populated the meadow; the air was filled with the stench of powder and putrefaction.

"A freackin' massacre, that's what happened!" A sudden answer in the form of a deep, raspy voice made itself present in the ambient "At least cavalry's here now…" Both Spartans encountered with a tall, Afro-American marine approaching to them, cladded in a gray uniform of steel plates, with a cap covering the top of his head and a bulky mustache sheltering his upper lip.

"Sergeant Johnson" Acknowledged Master Chief respectfully, taking and shaking Johnson's hand as soon as he reached their side.

"Man, when we asked for a miracle…" The sergeant laughed, releasing the green spartan's palm to salute Anna in the same manner, who smiled and imitated the gesture properly as well "I didn't expected to come across two spartans" he concluded, taking off a lighted cigar from his mouth, blowing fume to the air with each pronounced word.

"Where's the rest of your team?" Inquired Master Chief.

"Probably knocking on St. Peter's doors by now!" Replied Johnson, saving his magnums on their respective sheaths attached to the sides of his both thighs "Very few of us survived the landing, then space bugs came to shit on our cake… We're the only ones left…"

"E-Excuse me, we?" Asked Anna innocently, tilting her head in her unconscious habit of emulating a confused puppy whenever she faced doubt.

Breathing out smoke once again, the sergeant stepped aside to reveal the second survivor: To sight was brought a slender female marine wielding an assault rifle, offering a tiny smirk of pink lips and a shy wave of her hand to the spartans; she had fair skin, light traces of freckles adorned her cheeks and nosebridge; her emerald-green eyes matched the steel plates cladding her body, with a woodland-camouflage fatigue beneath them; a jade-tinted helmet wrapped around her head, failing to hide her long golden hair descending to the level of her lower back; forearms went uncovered while black boots and fingerless gloves occupied their respective places.

The Spartans stared with bemused eyes at the curious marine, scanning her from head to toes during her timid approach towards them; Humanity was in need of brave souls to stand against the covenant, now more than ever before, and this peculiar blonde was the finest proof of it.

"Wow…" Whispered the young servicewoman in pure amazement, smiling lightly, standing still as rock before the supersoldiers "I thought I'd never see a spartan by myself" She continued eagerly, never losing her childish smirk "I mean, I've heard the stories: You guys are incredible! I hope we can go together on a mission sometime, it's an honor to meet you both, you saved us after all, and in what way! It was amazing! That's-"

Disconcerted gazes fell upon the female soldier: Master Chief continued looking speechlessly as usual, his helmet somehow reflecting the state of perplexity he felt towards her.

'_She's completely out of place_' Anna thought, remaining silent as well, but her lack of words belonged to a distinct source; A strange feeling that she wasn't capable of categorize, one that awoke a strong sense of intrigue over the curious marine, a certain kind of familiarity, a deeper connection that caused a greater conflict from within.

Then it struck her: The redhead immediately remembered the frightened marine she attempted to comfort back at the life-boat; There was something else, however, different, yet well-known but unnamed; an eyebrow was arched: If this was some kind of joke from fate, she honestly wasn't understanding it; The idea simply troubled her judgement even more when she came to realization.

Anna saw herself on this blonde, as an innocent little girl full of hopes that didn't seemed to fit in the ranks of the army, one that tried so hard to make things right; the first impression she received was ambiguous, weird, even eerie from a certain perspective; yet she couldn't help the warming of her heart that came with this feeling, eliciting a sheepish smirk from the redhead.

During a lifetime of fight, struggle and loss: All those who held some sort of contact with Anna, perceived her as a 'fish out of water', beneath the lowest expectations, a doubtless waste of resources; always vulnerable to contempt, underestimation and failure, consequence of her nature contrasting with the ways that ruled the world around her.

Thus, when the female spartan finally stood before the possibility of meeting an equal, someone who knew and shared the pain of being the wrong person in the wrong place: Her hopes ascended to the height of the sun, she would never be alone anymore! Unlike the rest of her existence; fellowship earned a new meaning, and for the first time in forever: She did not feared to be mistaken.

"I-uh, sorry, I'm rambling again…" Stammered the curious marine, scratching the back of her head as soon as she felt the puzzled stares of the spartans over her; then, a black-gloved palm came to release the rifle's handle, reaching out to start the greeting ritual of hand-shaking; the blonde straightened her back and cleared her throat "My name is Rapunzel Flowers, First Class Private from the U.N.S.C. Defense Force; Thank you for saving us"

"Spartan one, one, seven; Call me 'Master Chief'" Replied the green spartan, clasping firmly his palm on the servicewoman's and shaking it with light strength.

"I'm Anna" Responded eagerly the redhead to the gesture, emulating the previous scene with enthusiasm "Nice to see I won't be the only girl around here anymore"

"I know, right! Men…" Said Rapunzel tauntingly, releasing the female spartan's hand, rolling her eyes as she did "Always wanting to solve everything with shots and punches"

"You tell'em girl!"

(Clap!) Out of sudden: Two black-gloved palms went to rise and fly in the air, clashing together exuberantly as result of the apparently mirrored opinions.

"Ow!" Whined the blonde in pain after the high-fiving, retreating her hand.

"Sorry! Can't handle my strength sometimes" Babbled Anna in apology, blushing awkwardly at her own clumsiness.

"Glad to see your luck hasn't changed" Cortana made herself present inside Master Chief's helmet after a long absence, interrupting the supersoldier's silent death-stare falling upon both females.

"More like undeserved punishment" Answered coldly the green spartan "Now my babysitting duties have doubled"

"Whatever you say Adonis" Chuckled the A.I.

Just as Anna chuckled to herself at the image of Rapunzel rubbing her sore hand, at least before her smile faded when her gaze met the sight of the blonde's severely injured shoulder, eliciting a gasp and a frown from her; the corresponding shoulder plate was missing, exhibiting a reddish mark of skinless flesh over the joint of her arm that seemed to be pulsing, bare to the wind, surrounded by a black contour that presumably was burned tissue.

"God, are you okay? What happened?" Inquired the redhead concerned, covering her mouth with her both palms in a mix of amazement and disgust.

"What?" The female marine seemed legitimately confused by such question, then her vision followed Anna's, right into her wound "Oh, this? Don't mind that, I only took a shot for the team, that's all; I've had it worse, I tend to heal real quickly" She concluded, shrugging unworriedly with an unusually confident smile.

"Oooo… kay…"

"Hate to be the party pooper" The sergeant re-introduced himself in the conversation, suddenly, placing himself beside Rapunzel "But war ain't over… What about the others? Did you found another life-boat in your way here?"

"We found more survivors in our go, they've been evacuated and put in safety with aid of Echo-419" Replied Master Chief as he lightened a blue flare, dropping it to the grass; then, a huge amount of deep blue smoke rose from the soil at the group's proximities, reaching the height of the clouds in a matter of seconds.

"Heh" Johnson laughed "That would explain why Foe Hammer took so long for picking us up"

"Echo-419, do you read?" Spoke the green spartan with his fingers on one side of his helmet.

"_Here Echo-419, Chief" Came the reply of a feminine voice in the communicators "What do you need?"_

"We've found the last group of survivors, all hostiles are neutralized, we request evac, I left a flare on our current location, over"

"_Roger that, Chief, I see your flare, on my way"_

"Well, that was quick" Said the sergeant, throwing away the remains of his finished cigarette "But I guess we can call it a day, what's next on the shopping list?"

"I've picked up reports that the covenant has located and secured the Pillar of Autumn's crash-site" Cortana answered through Master Chief's speakers, Anna and Rapunzel approached out of curiosity "The good news is that the captain's still alive, bad news is that the covenant has captured the entire surviving command group"

"So, I guess we found ourselves a mission" Rapunzel commented, crossing her arms.

"This day will never end, right? Geez…" Anna huffed, blowing some loose hairs off her face, clearly annoyed.

"Wait, new traffic on the covenant battle-net" The A.I. resumed her speech, suddenly "I've found captain Keyes! He's being held on a covenant cruiser: The Truth and Reconciliation, a ship I disabled before we abandoned the Autumn; The Truth and Reconciliation hovers over a desert plateau roughly 300 kilometers uphill"

"H-h-hovers?" Stuttered the female spartan, trembling "Li-like… Off the ground?" Her sworn phobia to heights chose the worst moment to surface; the blonde servicewoman beside her threw her a disbelieving stare.

"There's our ride!" The loud buzzing of ignited turbines filled the ambient; a pelican emerged from behind the mountains, slowly descending to the valley, creating an air vortex during the landing, strong enough to shake the nearby treetops and spread enormous dust-clouds across the prairie; the group was forced to step back with their hands in front of their eyes due to the might of the raging winds.

"Welcome back, Charlie" Said Foe Hammer from within the ship, opening its main gate at the bottom as soon as it reached the ground-level "Ready to go"

"Get aboard and let's get out of here!" Yelled Johnson, hoping to overpass the turbine's sound "'cause tonight we'll dinner with the devil! In the friggin' belly of the friggin' beast!"

"Ladies first" The sergeant stood alongside the pelican, offering a hand to the approaching females in a very gentlemanlike manner.

"How kind" Said Rapunzel, accepting the assistance, showing her gratitude with a slight bow of her head, entering the ship.

"T-th-Thanks…" Anna timidly took Johnson's hand, stepping inside the pelican with a clumsy pace; she hated traveling on pelicans for reason she did not needed or wished to explain, but to her misfortune it was one of the U.N.S.C.'s most frequent means of transport, yet she hasn't got used to it, even after all this years of military career; and this time, like many others: Her nervousness got the best of her.

The female spartan sat close to the ship's opened gates, closing her eyes, throwing her head backwards and sighing in relief; the blonde marine situated herself next to her; Master Chief and the sergeant entered the vehicle.

"We should move out, lieutenant" Cortana said on the communicators "We'll need your help on a rescue mission" With that the storm of dust, fire and noise resumed after a moment of being dissipated; the pelican slowly began to ascend from above the ground; the trunks of the trees trembled once again.

"You okay?" Rapunzel asked at the image of Anna digging her nails on her seat, closing tightly her eyes and chewing on her bottom lip.

"I-uh, Yeah, I'm fine, kinda' nervous but exited… And dizzy…" The female spartan parted her sight from the blonde, looking into the valley getting smaller and farer at a slow pace; her smile returned to her face after she swallowed her nauseas, she felt grateful about leaving this place, finally having an opportunity to enjoy a well-deserved rest

Besides: A great thrill was seizing her being; Anna hasn't forgotten about the second chance that fate settled upon her, there was a new world to discover, recent friendships to grow and a step closer to finish this fight, despite all unfavorable odds.

And she was ready: She was ready to let everything go, amend her mistakes and return home, as she always wished since she was a little girl; nothing, nothing would prevent her from reaching her dream; she was ready to end this once in for all, in the best terms, so no one should have to suffer as she did.

Or at least she thought so… Because destiny had another plan…

One that crushed her hopes in the blink of an eye, like several times in the past…

The redhead's smile faded when her gaze fell upon a strange anomaly occurring at the bottom of the valley: Over the prairie stood what seemed to be a translucent figure, distorting the environment around it like a crystal glass; Her jaw hung slightly open, she said nothing, since she herself doubted of her perception of reality, so she stared in silence, waiting for the things to come.

Eventually the crystalline silhouette began to take shape, darkening, and Anna's blood froze when the mysterious entity reached its true form, it didn't took long for her to recognize it: It was the elite that escaped from her assault with the warthog a moment ago…

The sangheili was staring at her right in the eye, even from such amount of distance between them, she could feel the hatred in its gaze; then, her skin became snow-white when she realized about the connection: This elite was the same that nearly killed her and Carter back at Reach, below the O.N.I.'s Sword Base…

This elite was still alive… And now it was personal…

"Oh no…" She muttered in pure horror "They know we're coming…" Anna was wrong: She was not alone… The ghosts of Reach had many forms… And they would never leave her…

* * *

**-The Insurrectionists: **Also known as "Separatists", "insurgents" and "rebels", are groups of human individuals devoted to complete liberation from the influence of the "Unified Earth Government" and the "United Nations Space Command". They were the UNSC's main enemy during the Insurrection, an undeclared civil war between the UNSC and the numerous Insurrectionist movements across human-controlled space which took place predominantly before the Human-Covenant War, although sporadic conflicts between the two sides have continued since.

**-Sergeant Major Avery Junior Johnson: **Hewas a senior non-commissioned officer of the UNSC Marine Corps who served during the Insurrection and the Human-Covenant War. Johnson was a highly trained Marine, serving with various units of the Naval Special Warfare Command, most notably the highly classified ORION Project, the UNSC's first supersoldier program.

**-Kig-Yar: **Also known as "Jackals", are a bird-like saurian species, which serve the Covenant as mercenaries and privateers. There are several distinct races of Kig-Yar, though humans commonly identify the species according to two groupings (Jackals and Skirmishers) based on encounters in the battlefield. In combat, Kig-Yar typically serve as snipers and scouts within the Covenant due to their excellent senses of sight, smell, and hearing.

**-U.N.S.C. Defense Force: **The "United Nations Space Command Defense Force" (UNSCDF for short) is the defensive military force of the UNSC, consisting of the Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and the SPARTAN Program, which serve as a joint air, land, sea, space and advanced infantry force.

**-Private First Class: **Also "PFC", is the second enlisted rank in the UNSC Marine Corps and third in the UNSC Army. A Marine PFC is equal in rank to Crewman Apprentice in the UNSC Navy and an Airman in the Air Force. An Army PFC is equal to Crewman in the Navy and Airman First Class in the Air Force. In the Marine Corps, it is one rank above Private, and one rank under Lance Corporal. In the Army, it is one rank above Private (E-2) and one rank below Specialist.

**-Echo-419: **It was a UNSC Pelican Dropship assigned to the 23rd Naval Air Squadron and attached to the UNSC Pillar of Autumn in 2552.

**-"Foe Hammer": **Carol Rawley (Call sign: Foe Hammer), was the pilot of Pelican Transport Echo 419 on the UNSC Pillar of Autumn in 2552.

**-Fire Team "Charlie": **Was a United Nations Space Command Marine unit stationed aboard the UNSC Pillar of Autumn that actively participated in the Battle of Installation 04, led by John-117.


End file.
